The Order Orthoptera appears to be very poorly represented at the Chatham Islands, five species only having been recorded. These consist of two rhaphidophorids, one henicid, one blattid and one phasmid; and of these the two rhaphidophorids are by far the most abundant, a single specimen only of both the henicid and the phasmid having been collected. Till 1897, when J. J. Fougère visited the Chathams and collected Periplaneta undulivitta (Walker), the only orthopterous insect known from there was Talitropsis crassicruris Hutton. In 1896–97, Dr. Schauinsland also visited the Chatham Islands and obtained specimens of Platyzosteria brunni (Alfken), probably synonymous with Periplaneta undulivitta, Talitropsis crassicruris Hutton, which was placed in a new genus Gammaroparnops Alfken, Onosandrus focalis (Hutton) now Zealandosandrus maculifrons (Walker), and Argosarchus horridus (White). In 1903 Fougère made another trip to the Chathams, where he collected two males and two females of Novoplectron serratum (Hutton) from Pitt Island. In the summer of 1924, the Otago Institute sent a party to the Chatham Islands and several specimens of T. crassicruris and one of N. serratum were collected by Archey, Lindsay and Cannon from Kaingaroa and Ouwenga on Chatham Island, and also from Mangere Island. In 1937, further specimens of both species were collected by Mr. E. G. Turbott of the Auckland Museum, from South East Island. In the Chatham Islands 1954 Expedition, as in the 1924 trip, the only Orthoptera collected were T. crassicruris and N. serratum. Nineteen specimens of T. crassicruris from South East Island, The Sisters, Pitt Island, Kaingaroa and Waitangi, and 31 specimens of N. serratum from South East Island and. The Sisters were collected by Forster and Dell. N. serratum is endemic to the Chathams, and although Hutton records T. crassicruris as occurring also on Banks Peninsula, and his type material was collected from there, no more have been seen since, while they appear to be well distributed throughout the Chatham Islands. The lack of speciation among the Rhaphidophoridae is strange when one compares it with the large number of species present on the North and South Islands of New Zealand, and could perhaps be attributed to lack of suitable ecological niches.

I should like to extend my thanks to Mr. G. Knox, Canterbury University College, for permitting me to examine the Rhaphidophorid material collected on the Chatham Islands 1954 Expedition; Dr. R. K. Dell, Dominion Museum, for information concerning the localities where the material was collected; Dr. R. R. Forster, Canterbury Museum, for allowing me to examine the type material of the two species of cave weta, and also material collected on the 1924 Otago Institute trip to the Chathams; Mr. E. G. Turbott, Auckland Institute and Museum, for permission to examine the 1937 material; and Mr. M. D. King, for the excellent photographs of the wetas.