Page:VCH Hertfordshire 1.djvu/208

A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE MICROPTERYGID^ (continued') Eriocephala thunbergella, F. Sandridge (Griffith) ; common in Broxbourne and Wormley Woods (Boyd) aureatella, Sc. (allionella, F.). Hertford (Stephens) mansuetella, Z. Sandridge (Griffith) ; MICROPTERYGID/E (continued) scarce at Bury Green, Cheshunt (Boyd) Eriocephala aruncella, Sc. (seppella, F.). Sandridge (Griffith) ; common round Cheshunt (Boyd) calthella, L. Sandridge (Griffith) NOTE As the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera are the only orders which have been systematically listed for the county the few notes available regarding the other orders are here grouped together. Orthoptera. The Common Earwig (Farficula auricularia) is of course abundant every- where, and it commits great ravages among fruit and flowers. Other species of the same genus are no doubt present, but I have been unable to find any published records of their occurrence or to learn that they have been recognized. The Domestic Cricket (Gryllus domes- ticus) and the Common Cockroach (Blatta orientalis) are widely distributed, and the Grasshopper is often seen and heard. Mr. J. F. Stephens in Illustrations of British Entomology (' Mandibu- lata'), vi., records the following five species as occurring in the vicinity of the county town. I have followed his nomenclature in all cases : Micropteryx aptera, in a wood near Hertford ; Meconema varia ; Phasogonura viridissima ; Acrydium subulatum ; and A. nigricans. Neuroptera. A paper entitled 'Notes on the Mayfly ' was read before the members of the Watford Natural History Society on June I3th, 1878, by Dr. Peter Hood. This was printed in the Transactions 1 and illustrated by a coloured plate. The subject is there treated largely from the point of view of a fly-fisher, and the only reference which is made to Hertfordshire is a record of the disappearance of Ephemera vulgata from the river Colne at Rickmansworth. This stream formerly abounded with Mayflies as well as trout, but owing to the pollution of the water both fly and fish had ceased to frequent the Colne at the time Dr. Hood's paper was written. Lacewing Flies (Chrysopa), insects with delicate green bodies, are often met with on warm summer evenings. They come freely to light, and when captured emit a very unpleasant odour. The common species of Dragonflies are frequently to be met with. Mr. Stephens reports the presence of the following species of Neuroptera : Ephemera vulgata fusca rosea helvipes Cxnis pennata Bagtis longicauda costalis subfusca obscura bioculata culiciformis horaria (?) cingulata Clogon ochraceum albipenne (?) unicolore dimidiatum Anas formosa ./Eschna grandis affinis vernalis Chrysopa capitata reticulata Chrysopa ventralis Hemerobius pini pallidus fuscatus Coniopteryx tineiformis Psocus subnebulosus venosus vittatus flavicans subocellatus rufescens flavescens nigricornis phacopterus Sialis lutarius Nemoura annulata luteicornis pallicornis nitida sulcicollis variegata Leuctra fusciventris abdominalis 1 Trans. Watford Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. ii. p. 107. 1 68