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EXPLANATION TO PLATE I. 
 
 Country in which the species is not indigenous; 
 which it visits at irregular intervals ; in which it 
 is most disastrous ; and which it vacates within a year. 
 
 Area more often visited ; in which the species holds 
 its own longer, but which it generally forsakes in the 
 course of time. 
 
 Region where the species comes to perfection ; in 
 which it permanently breeds ; and from which come 
 
 the disastrous swarms that sweep over the first mentioned 
 
 region. 
 
 Area west of the mountains where the species also, 
 in all probability, breeds permanently ; from which 
 
 it sometimes pushes to the east of the mountain range ; 
 
 and from which the California swarms probably come. 
 
rrHE 
 
 Locust Plague 
 
 XJ:n^ited States 
 
 BEING MORE PARTICULARLY A TREATISE ON THE 
 
 OR SO-CALLED 
 
 GRASSHOPPER, 
 
 AS IT OCCURS EAST OF THE ROCKY JIOUNTAINS, 
 
 WITH 
 
 Practical Recommendations for its Destruction. 
 
 / BY 
 
 >^ Charles Y; Riley, M.A., Ph.D.., 
 
 bTATE ENTOMOLOGIST OF MISSOURI ; CHIEF OF THE U. S. ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 
 
 LECTURER ON ENTOMOLOGY IN VAKIOUS COLLEGES; 
 
 AUTHOR OF '• POTATO PKSTS,' ETC. 
 
 "WITH 45 IXiXjXrSTE-J^TIOlTS. 
 
 NO...C//.C 
 
 •> 187 
 
 CHICAGO: v^^^-c^wAi 
 
 EAND, McNALLY & CO., PUBLISHERS. 
 1877. 
 

 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1877, by 
 
 Charles V. Rilby, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface 7 
 
 Introduction 9 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Characters of the Species 13 
 
 Classificatory position of the Rocky Mountain Locust, 13. — 
 How it difters from other species, 14. — Easily confounded 
 with the common Red-legged Locust, 14. — Detailed descrip- 
 tions of both, 15. — Its still closer resemblance to the Atlan- 
 tic Migratory Locust, 22. — Characters of this last, 22. — Spe- 
 cies vs. variety and race, 23. — Comparisons of these three 
 closelj'-allied species in their early stages, 26. — A green 
 variety of the Rocky Mountain Locust not infrequent, 27. — 
 Purely an American insect, 28. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 Chronological History 29 
 
 The Locust plague in the "Old World," 29.— Extent of its 
 injuries, 30. — Migratory species in Europe, Asia and 
 Africa, 30. — The ravages of the locust in America, 31. — Its 
 earliest visitations, 31. — injuries on the Pacific Coast, 32. — 
 Injuries east of the Rocky Mountains, 33. — Invasions of 
 1818-19, 33.— Of 1845-49, 34.— Of 1855, 34.— Of 1856, 35.— 
 Of 1837-67, 35. 36.— "Of 1866, 36.— Damage the following 
 year, 37.— The invasion of 1873, 38.— That of 1874, 89.— 
 Why so disastrous, 41. — General outlook in the spring of 
 1875, 42. — Severity of the injuries from the young insects 
 that year, 43. — Destitution that prevailed, 44. — Amount of 
 loss sustained, 45. — Destination of departing swarms of 
 1875, 47. —The invasion of 1876, 49. — Eastern limit reached, 
 53. — Omaha conference, 53. 
 
4 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Native Home and Geographical Range of the 
 
 Species East of the Mountains 55 
 
 Source of the devastating swarms that reach into the 
 Mississippi Valley, 55. — Theirorigin in the extreme North- 
 west country lying east of the mountains, 56. — Cause of 
 their emigration, 57. — Difference between summer and fall 
 swarms, 58. — The species not at home in the Mississippi 
 Valley, 6-3. — Not permanent or able to perpetuate itself 
 there, 62. — Conditions which prevent such permanence, 
 63. — Not likely to do serious harm east of the ninety- 
 fourth meridian, 65. — Reasons why, 65. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Natural History and Transformations .... 69 
 
 How the eggs are laid, 69. — Philosophy of the egg-mass, 
 71. — The female capable of laying more than one egg- 
 mass, 72. — The escape of the young locust from the egg, 
 73. — Its emergence from the ground, 78. — Growth and 
 transformations, 78. — Acquisition of wings, 80. — Number 
 of molts, 82.— Flight at night, 83. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 Habits, and Power for Injury 85 
 
 Flight and ravages, 85. — Migratory instinct and great de- 
 structive power confined to a single species west of the 
 Mississippi, 88. — Food plants, 89. — Injury to fruit trees, 
 93. — Time of appearance of invading swarms, 94. — Rate 
 at which they spread, 95. — Direction of their flight, 96. — 
 Where the eggs are preferably laid, 96. — Time of hatching, 
 97. — Habits of the young or unfledged locusts, 98. — Direc- 
 tions in which the young travel, 100. — Rate at which 
 they travel, 100. — Limit of their eastward spread, 100. — 
 Not led by kings or queens, 101. — Direction taken by the 
 departing swarms, 103. — Their destination, 104. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. ■ 
 Effects of the Young Insects in the Country 
 
 WHERE they hatch, BUT WHERE THEY ARE NOT 
 indigenous 107 
 
 Experience with the young locusts in spring, 107. — Contrast 
 in summer and fall, 108. — No evil without some compen- 
 
Contents. 
 
 sating good, 108. — Changes that follow the locusts, 109.— 
 The prevalence of large green worms, 110. — The sudden 
 appearance of a peculiar grass, 110. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Natural Enemies of the Rocky Mountain Locust 113 
 
 Birds and other vertebrate animals, 113. — The good offices 
 of birds, 113. — Invertebrate animals, 114. — Animals that 
 attack the eggs, 115.— The Silky Mite, 115.— The Antho- 
 myia Egg-parasite, 118. — The common Flesh-fly, 123. — 
 Uudeteiinined larvae, 123. — Ichneumon-flies, Ground-bee- 
 tles, Click-beetles and Myriapods, 126. — Insects that destroy 
 the active locust, 126. — The Locust-mite, 128. — The Anony- 
 mous Tachina-fly, 131. — Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly, 134. — 
 Flesh-fly, 135. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Practical Considerations . 139 
 
 How best to prevent locust injuries, 139. — Encourage- 
 ment of natural enemies, 139. — Destruction of the eggs, 
 139. — Experiments with the eggs, and conclusions drawn 
 therefrom, 140. — Effects of alternately freezing and thaw- 
 ing, 141. — Influence of moisture, 143. — Exposure to the free 
 air, 148. — Burying at different depths, and pressure of the 
 soil, 149. — Table of temperatures, 152. — Harrowing in the 
 fall, 153. — Collecting the eggs, 153. — Plowing; how most 
 effectual, 153. — Irrigation, Tramping, 154 — Destruction of 
 the young or unfledged Locusts, 155. — Burning, 155. — 
 Crushing, 157. — Trapping, 157. -Ditching and trenching, 
 161. — Catching, IGl — Different contrivances for this pur- 
 pose, 162. — Use of destructive agents, 162. — Coal-oil pans, 
 163. — The use of coal tar, 164. — The protection of plants 
 by special applications, IfiS. — The best means of protect- 
 ing fruit and shade trees, 166. — Sulphur fumes and smudges, 
 167. — Destruction of the winged locusts, 167. — Preventive 
 measures, 169. — Suggestions that may prove of service, 
 170. — Use of hogs and poultry, 171. — The Signal Service, 
 172. — Military aid, 173. — Diversified agriculture, 174. — 
 Organized effort, 176. — State legislation, 176. — Missouri 
 locust-law, 177. — Kansas locust-laws, 178, 179. — Minnesota 
 locust-law, 180. — Nebraska locust-law, 184. — How to avert 
 locust invasions, 186. 
 
6 Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Ravages of Locusts East of the Mississippi . .187 
 
 Migratory Locusts in the Eastern States, 187.— The Atlan- 
 tic Locust, 187. — Injury from other, non-migratory species, 
 190.— Often a serious matter during hot, dry seasons, 
 193.— Locust flights in Illinois in 1875, 195. — The species 
 of which the swarms were composed, 197. — Locust flights 
 east of the Mississippi not composed of the Rocky Mount- 
 ain species, 201. — Necessity of discriminating between 
 species, 201. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 General Considerations 207 
 
 Nomenclature, 207. — Locust vs. Grasshopper, 207. — 
 Prairie fires vs. locust ravages, 209. — Fasting and prayer, 
 213. — Not a divine visitation, 216.— Influence of the wind 
 in determining the course of locust flights, 216. — Locusts 
 as food for man, 217. — Unnecessary alarm caused by com- 
 paratively harmless species, 227. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The author has been frequently urged by those 
 who have been interested in, or who have profited 
 by his writings, to republish, in compact form, the 
 articles that have appeared in the Missouri Entomo- 
 logical Reports, on the subject of the Rocky Moun- 
 tain Locust. The work herewith submitted to the 
 public is the result. It is simply an orderly bring- 
 ing together and revision of the matter contained in 
 sundry fugitive articles, and particularly of that 
 in the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Reports afore- 
 mentioned, which have no circulation outside of 
 Missouri. It could not well have appeared with- 
 out the kind assistance of Prof. O. S. Westcott, of 
 the High School, Chicago, to whom the writer is 
 under obligations for superintending the details of 
 publication during his constant absence in the field, 
 in the performance of Government duty. 
 
 Trusting that the work will interest both the pop- 
 ular and the scientific reader, certain descriptive 
 passages, of more especial concern to the naturalist, 
 have not been excluded, but are printed in smaller 
 type than the text, so that they may be skipped by 
 
8 Preface. 
 
 the farmer, or by others who do not care for such 
 details. These will be found principally in the first 
 chapter. Except where necessary, for the sake of 
 precision, technicalities have been avoided. The 
 term "larva," frequently employed, means the 
 young or second state of an insect — that succeeding 
 the egg ; and the term " pupa " mea ns the third state, 
 or that preceding the perfect or mature form. In 
 most insects, the larva is vermiform, and totally 
 unlike the parent, while the pupa is dormant or 
 quiescent. In tlie locust, however, the change from 
 one state to another is gradual, and the pupa is 
 active. 
 
 The sign 5 wherever used, indicates "male;" 
 the sign ? "female." The illustrations ai^e from 
 nature by the author, unless otherwise stated, and 
 where enlarged, the natural size is usually given in 
 hair-line. The facts and recommendations are the 
 result of extensive personal experience, and that 
 they may prove of benefit to the large class which 
 suffers from locust injuries, is the earnest desire of 
 
 The Author. 
 
 St. Louis, Mo., May 15th, 1877 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 No insect has ever occupied a larger share of 
 public attention in North America, or more injuri- 
 ously affected our greatest national interest, than the 
 subject of this treatise. Especially during the past 
 four years has it brought ruin and destitution to 
 thousands of our Western farmers, and it constitutes 
 to-day the greatest obstacle to the settlement of 
 much of the fertile country between the Mississippi 
 and the Rocky Mountains. Knowledge is power in 
 protecting our crops against the ravages of a tiny 
 insect, as in all other undertakings ; and according 
 as accurate knowledge regarding this locust plague 
 is disseminated among our people, will they be able 
 to vanquish the common foe. 
 
 It is a gratifying evidence of the progressive 
 character of our Republic, that the late Congress 
 made provision for a Commission, the duty of which 
 is to make a thorough survey of this locust subject, 
 with a view of enabling our people to protect their 
 crops against the insect' s attacks, and, if possible, 
 prevent its incursions from its native breeding 
 grounds. The task is a great one, and the good 
 
10 Introduction. 
 
 that will flow from the labors of the Commission 
 will, let us hope, be correspondingly great. 
 
 The history of this Migratory Locust, east of the 
 Rocky Mountain range, as recorded in the following 
 pages, presents certain marked features. We have, 
 first, the migrations of winged swarms in autumn, 
 from the mountain regions of the West and North- 
 west, into the more fertile country south of the 44th 
 parallel and east of the 100th meridian ; second, the 
 return migration of the progeny, as soon as wings are 
 acquired the next summer. It is the more fertile and 
 thickly settled country south and east of the limits 
 indicated, which suffers most, both from the insects 
 that sweep over it, and from the young that hatch 
 in its rich soil ; and it is principally this country 
 which, in this work, is designated as outside the 
 insect's native home, and in which it can never 
 become a permanent resident. The species does not 
 dwell permanently even in much of the -country 
 north and west of those lines, but it flourishes more 
 and more toward tlie Saskatchawan, Swan River 
 and Red River Settlements of British America, and 
 westward therefrom. 
 
 Another marked feature is the eastern limit of the 
 insect's spread, at a line broadly indicated by the 
 94th meridian, and the consequent security from 
 serious injury east of that line. These three 
 
Introduction. 11 
 
 features — the Northwest origin, the return migra- 
 tion from the Southeast country (which implies 
 only temporary injury therein), and the Eastern 
 limit — maybe stated as laws governing the insect 
 east of the Rocky Mountains. They were first fully 
 propounded by the writer, and will, he believes, be 
 fully established and confirmed by future events. 
 Their general truth is a guarantee to the people of 
 the Mississippi Valley against continued injury from 
 locust ravages, and should banish from the minds of 
 the farmers east of the great "Father of Waters," 
 the fear of being visited by the disastrous locust 
 armies. 
 
 One other point is, also, made clear in the follow- 
 ing pages, viz., that in the more thickly settled parts 
 of the country subject to visitation, man has the 
 power to utterly rout, by practical and feasible 
 means, the young or unfledged insects. Indeed, 
 when our people become familiar with the locust 
 plague in all its phases, it will cease to be such a 
 bugbear. There is no part of the country that is 
 not subject to meteorological or entomological 
 excesses, and in the long run the Rocky Mountain 
 Locust is not more injurious in the country which 
 it occasionally visits, than are some of the farmer's 
 insect foes, in other parts of the country. When 
 we think of the famine and utter destitution that at 
 
12 Introduction. 
 
 times overtake some of the Eastern peoples, we 
 may well feel grateful that we live in a land of such 
 resources and promise. The threatened country is, 
 in the main, one of the most fertile regions on the 
 face of the globe. It has prospered in the past : it 
 will prosper in the future ; and in proportion as we 
 meet this locust enemy with enterprise and con- 
 certed, intelligent action, in that proportion shall 
 we vanquish it. 
 
The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 CHARACTERS OF THE SPECIES. 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust belongs to the Order of 
 Straight-winged Insects ( Orthoptera), and to the Family 
 LocicstidoBy Westwood.* It is the Galoptenus spretus of 
 Thomas,! and comes to perfection only in the plains re- 
 gions of the Rocky Mountains and of the Northwest. 
 
 EASILY CONFOUNDED AVITH THE RED-LEGGED LOCUST. 
 
 The western farmer is too familiar with the insect under 
 consideration to need any detailed description of it. Yet 
 this work will doubtless come into the hands of many who 
 have yet formed no personal acquaintance with the pest, 
 but who nevertheless, for one reason or another, desire to 
 become familiar with its appearance. There are also sev- 
 eral allied species which are apt to be confounded with it, 
 
 * Acridii, Latreille. 
 
 t The species was named in MS. by Mr. P. R. Uhler, of Baltimore, Md., but 
 never by him described. Mr. B. D. Walsh subsequently (Practical Entomolo'^ist, 
 II, p. 1,) adopted Mr. Uhler'sname in connection with a partial description; but 
 Mr. Thomas first fully defined the species, as here distinguished and referred to 
 by me. 
 
 (13) 
 
14 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 and two of these I desire to call special attention to, be- 
 cause they are widespread and common. So at the outset 
 the reader will be served with some rather dry details, 
 and if such be not palatable, he is advised to pass to other 
 chapters that may interest him more. 
 
 In my endeavors to accurately map out the territory in 
 Missouri invaded in 1874 by the Rocky Mountain Locust, 
 I was frequently puzzled by accounts from counties east of 
 the limit-line beyond which, as I shall show in Chapter VI, 
 it never reaches to do harm. In every such instance, 
 where I was able to obtain specimens, they proved to be 
 ^'^" '^.^_ ^^® common Red-legged 
 
 Locust. This last species 
 is common in most of the 
 States, extending to the 
 red-Legged Locust. Atlantic, and IS even re- 
 
 ported in parts of the Rocky Mountain region, where the 
 migratory species is at home. The two bear such a close 
 general resemblance that even entomologists have doubted 
 their specific distinctness; and indeed size and colorational 
 characters would not suflice to separate the exceptional 
 individuals which depart most from the typical characters 
 of their species, and approach most to those of the other. 
 [Fig. 2.]^^ Yet they are distinct, as 
 
 species go, and in order to 
 properly study the distri- 
 bution of the Rocky Moun- 
 RocKT mS^'ntII^ Locust. tain species, and its power 
 
 of becoming acclimated in the Mississippi Valley, or not, 
 it is of the first importance that observers confound not 
 the two species. Hence, I shall desciibe in detail the two 
 insects. From these details, which follow in smaller type, 
 it is evident that the distinguishing characters, most ea!=ily 
 observed by the non-entomologist, are the relative length 
 
Characters of the Species. 15 
 
 of wing, and the structure of the terminal joint of the 
 male abdomen, which is turned up like the prow of a 
 t^'s- 3] ship — this last character being the 
 
 most important [^'S- ^l 
 
 and constant. 
 The Rocky Moun- 
 tain species has 
 the wings ex- 
 
 RocKT Mountain Lo- . ° Red-legged Iocust:— 
 
 crsT ■— Anal characters of tending, when Anal characters of male: 
 
 male; a, side view; &, c, hind a. side view ; 6, c, hind and 
 
 and top views, of tip. closed, about top views, of tip. 
 
 one-third their length beyond the tip of the abdomen 
 (Fig. 2), and the last or upturned joint of the abdomen 
 narrowing like the prow of a canoe, and notched or pro- 
 duced into two tubercles at top (Fig. 3). The wings of 
 the Red-legged Locust extend, on a average, about one- 
 sixth their length beyond the tip of the abdomen (Fig. 1), 
 and the last abdominal joint is shorter, broader, more 
 squarely cut off at top, without terminal tubercles, and 
 looks more like the stern of a barge (Fig. 4). 
 
 DESCRirXIVE: DETAILED COMPARISONS WITH THE RED- 
 LEGGED LOCUST. 
 
 A large amount of material examined, has enabled me to make 
 very thorough comparisons between the two species. The genus 
 Caloptenus to which the species belongs, is distinguished principally 
 by the stoutness of the spine-like tubercle on the fore-breast be- 
 tween the front legs, and by the tip of the abdomen in the male 
 bemg much swollen. Mr. Cyrus Thomas, in his admirable work on 
 the "Acrididaeof N. A.," has published good descriptions of the 
 known N. A. species, and I will transfer what he has said of the 
 two in question — adding only some subsidiary remarks in brackets, 
 and at the close : 
 
 Caloptenus Femur-rubrum, Burm. Handb. Ent., II, 638. 
 Syn. Acridium femur-rubrum, Deg. Ins. Ill, PI. 42, Fig. 5, p. 498. 
 
 " femorale, Oliv., Encyl. Meth., 121 Ins. VI, 228. 
 Grjjllus {Locusta) erythropus, Gmel., Linn. Syst. Nat. I, IV, 2086. 
 "Grizzled with dirty olive and brown; a black spot extending 
 from the eyes along the sides of the thorax ; [but never upon the 
 
16 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 third lobe] ; an oblique yellow line on each side of the body beneath 
 the wings; a row of dusky, brown spots along the middle of the 
 wing-covers ; and the hindmost shanks and feet blood-red, with 
 black spines. The wings are transparent, with a very pale green- 
 ish-yellow tint next to the body, and are netted with brown lines. 
 The hindmost thighs have two large spots on the upper side, and 
 the extremity black [more correctly three such spots, or, including 
 the extreme one at tip, four: Harris seems to have overlooked the 
 basal one]; but are red below, and yellow on the inside. The 
 appendages at the tip of the body in the male are of a long trian- 
 gular form. Length [to tip of abdomen] from 0.75 to 1 inch ; ex- 
 pansion of wings 1.25 to 1.75 inches." As this species, which is so 
 common, varies considerably, I have concluded to give Dr. Harris's 
 description without change, adding the following: Vertex but 
 slightly depressed, with a minute angular expansion in front of the 
 eyes; frontal costa usually but slightly sulcate ; sides parallel. 
 Eyes large and rather prominent. Elytra and wings generally a 
 little [usually extending about 1-6 their length beyond the abdomen] 
 longer than the abdomen. The cerci of the male rather broad and 
 flat [longer and narrower toward tip than in »pTetus] ; apex of last 
 ventral segment entire and truncate. The yellow stripes on the 
 side extend from the base of the wing to the insertion of the pos- 
 terior femora. The ground color varies with localities and age, and 
 most of the specimens from one or two sections appear to have un- 
 spotted elytra; sometimes a reddish-brown tint prevails; at others 
 a dark olive ; at others a dark purplish-brown ; yet the markings 
 generally remain the same. 
 
 Locniities. — Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Minnesota, Ohio, 
 Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Vancouver's 
 Island (?), west coast of America('?). — [Thomas, Acrididce of N. A. 
 (1873), pp. 163-4. 
 
 In addition to what Mr. Thomas states of the variation in color, 
 it may be added that the dark marks on the hind thighs are in ex- 
 ceptional specimens wholly wanting, and in others so confluent 
 that the whole of the upper part is brown-black. In order to show 
 how variable (within certain limits, however,) is the relative length 
 of wing, I have made measurements of over two hundred specimens, 
 all taken in St. Louis county. Mo. As the length of the abdomen 
 is an uncertain criterion, varying according as this last is distended 
 with eggs or contracted from one cause and another, I have made 
 these measurements from the juncture of the hind thighs and 
 shanks. The specimens were killed in the cyanide bottle, and 
 while yet fresh and supple laid flat on a scale divided into hun- 
 dredths of an inch. The furthermost hind leg was then stretched 
 until the suture between shank and thigh was just visible above the 
 inner border of the front wings. Careful measurements were then 
 
Characters of the Species. 
 
 17 
 
 taken, first, of the whole body ; second, of the extent of wing be- 
 yond the base of shank ; third, of the extent of abdomen beyond 
 the same. In the table below, only the extremes and the average 
 of these measurements are given. It should be observed that as the 
 abdomen shrinks slightly- in drying, and the wings do not, the 
 figures in the fourth column are somewhat lower than if taken 
 from dry specimens. This table of measurements will prove 
 interesting when compared with that further on, giving similar 
 measurements of spretus, and will conclusively show, by comparing 
 the figures in the fourth column, that the specific distinction can not, 
 as Mr. Walsh thought, be safely and solely left to length of wing 
 beyond the abdomen; as specimens of either species may in this 
 respect approach very near each other, and in exceptional cases 
 entirely agree. Nevertheless, this relative length of wing has great 
 value as a specific character, inasmuch as the difl:erence in relative 
 length is the rule, while the converse is a rare exception. The anal 
 characters of the male, (Fig. 4) will be found pretty constant and 
 reliable. Yet they also vary and frequently approach spretus in the 
 narrowing notched form of the tip. In the female the anal char- 
 acters are of less value in distinguishing the species. 
 
 CALOPTENUS FEMTJR-RUBRUM. 
 Measurements of the Male ; in Hundredths of an Inch. 
 
 
 Wl)ole length 
 
 Length of wing 
 
 Length of 
 
 Length of wing 
 
 
 head to tip of 
 wing. 
 
 beyond base 
 of tibia. 
 
 beyond base of 
 tibia. 
 
 beyond tip of 
 abdomen. 
 
 Lowest 
 
 0.94 
 
 0.02 
 
 0.00 
 
 00 
 
 Hieheet 
 
 1.12 
 
 0.12 
 
 0.08 
 
 0.08 
 
 Average 
 
 1.03 
 
 Ml 
 
 0.08 
 asurements of I 
 
 0.03 
 ''emale. 
 
 0.03 
 
 Lowest 
 
 1.03 
 
 0.02 
 
 0.00 
 
 O.OO 
 
 Highest 
 
 i.aa 
 
 0.15 
 
 0.15 
 
 0.12 
 
 Average 
 
 1.15 
 
 0.08 
 
 0.08 
 
 0.04 
 
 Caloptentjb spretus, Uhler Mbs. 
 
 Syix, Acridium spretum* Thomas Trans. 111. St. Agr. Soc, 
 V, 450. 
 
 Very much like C. /emur-rubrum, Burm., the principal differ- 
 ence being in the length of the elytra and wings ; a notch at the 
 
 ♦ This is called ^'■Acridium spretis, Uhler " in the article alluded to, and I very 
 much doubt if the description refers to the species in question; first, because I do 
 2 
 
18 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 tip of the last [ 5 ] ventral segment. Posterior lobe of the prono- 
 tum slightly expanding ; median somewhat distinct. Elytra and 
 wings pass the abdomen about one-third their length. The last 
 [ (5 ] ventral segment, which is turned up almost vertically, is some- 
 what tapering and is notched at the apex, which distinguishes it 
 from X\iQ femur-rubrum ; the notch is small, but is distinct. Pros- 
 ternal spine robust, subcylindrical, transverse. Migratory. 
 
 Color. — Scarcely distinct from the C femur-rubrum. The occi- 
 put and disk of the pronotum generally reddish-brown ; the posterior 
 lobe somewhat paler than the anterior and middle. Spots, as in 
 femur-rubrum., arranged in a line along the middle of the elytra ; 
 these are a little larger and more abundant toward the apex. The 
 head and thorax are sometimes a very dark olive-brown, at others, 
 reddish-brown, and even brownish-yellow, the color deepening 
 with age. The wings are pellucid, nerves dusky toward the apex ; 
 when flying high and against the sun, the wings look like large 
 snow flakes. 
 
 Dimensions. — 2 Length [to tip of abdomen], 1 to 1.2 inches; 
 elytra as long as the body ; posterior femora, 0.55 inch; posterior 
 tibiae, 0.5 inch, s Length, 0.85 to 1 inch; elytra, 0.9 to 1.05 inches. 
 
 As with femur-rubrum, the color of spretus is quite variable, 
 and the dead specimens, from which Mr. Thomas's description is 
 evidently made, convey a very imperfect idea of the living colors. 
 In the fresh or newly fledged specimens the colors, taken from my 
 notes in the field, are as follows: The more common specimens 
 are yellowish-white beneath; glaucous across the breast and about 
 mouth-parts ; pale bluish-glaucous, often with shades of purple and 
 ferruginous, on the sides of the head and thorax, and the upper 
 front of the face, which is sparsely and shallowly punctate and 
 faintly mottled with fuscous ; olive-brown and rust-red on the 
 occiput and pronotum — the rust-red relieved along the middle in the 
 following characteristic marks : two stripes on occiput, diverging 
 from between the eyes, and a very narrow median line — the brown 
 relieving them in a series of transverse mottlings ; a broad shade on 
 anterior lobes of pronotum, narrowing posteriorly and intersected 
 by black along the median carina, and the three transverse sutures; 
 
 not believe that sprelua occuh in Mnrphysboro, 111., where Mr. Thomas was then 
 residing, and where he quotes Acridium spretis as being quite common; secondly, 
 because the description in some respects would not apply to spretus as at present 
 defined. I call attention to this discrepancy, because it is upon this (as I believe 
 erroneous) reference, that Mr. Thomas quotes spretus from Illinois ; whereas I 
 agree with Mr. Walsh that (as we understaad the species to-day) it is not indige- 
 nous to that State. Where the anal characters of the male are not carefully 
 given, it is impossible to be sure of the species. Mr. Thomas himself now 
 believes that he muBt have had before him what is defined farther on as Atlanta. 
 
CJiaracters of the Species. 19 
 
 and, finally, a narrower shade on the posterior lobe, dilating pos- 
 teriori}' asd also with a black medial line along the carina. The 
 abdomen is pale, inclining to yellow, beneath ; more or less bluish, 
 or lilaceous above and marked with black especially toward base : 
 it also shows more or less distinctly the pale lines and mottlings 
 mentioned further on in the description of the pupa in which 
 they are more distinct. These are in a general way, two pale 
 longitudinal lines, diminishing anally, one subdorsal with an 
 inferior coincident spot on each joint ; the other stigmatal, twice as 
 broad, with an oblique dark mark dividing each joint, besides other 
 smaller and less distinct spots and mottlings. In the male the anal 
 parts are pale. The front wings, when closed, present a ground 
 color of pale grayish-yellow, inclining to olivaceous: they are gen- * 
 erally j^ellowish at base and the inner or dorsal surface is more or 
 less ferruginous: there is a characteristic whitish-5'ellow medial 
 shade along the basal half, rendering more conspicuous the larger 
 spots of which there are about a dozen, irregularly arranged, some 
 of the middle ones beingXisually confluent: when open, the wing is 
 seen to be pellucid toward tip; more opaque basally owing to the 
 increase of the reticulate veins, which are brown-black toward tip 
 and yellow outwardly, whitish-yellow medially, and ferruginous 
 inwardly, toward base: the small spots are brown, the larger black. 
 The hind wings, except a yellowish or brownish shade at apex and 
 along front edge, and a greenish tint at base, are transparent and 
 colorless, with the larger veins on the outside brown-black, and the 
 inner ones pale. The front and middle legs are yellowish, inclining 
 to red, the middle thighs with slight dusky shades outside and at 
 tip. The hind legs have the thighs striped with p<ile glaucous and 
 reddish on the outside and upper half of inside and four black or 
 dusky marks on the upper edge, especially inside, the basal smallest 
 and the terminal one largest and extending beneath around the 
 knee; the inferior groove is generally yellowish and the transverse 
 V-shaped and two longitudinal ridges on the outside, are whitish- 
 j-ellow: the shanks are coral-red with black spines; the feet some- 
 what paler, with black claws. The antennae are pale yellow, or 
 brownish, tipped with pale annuli; generally darkest toward tip. 
 The eyes are dark olivaceous, and the ocelli (one at anterior front 
 of each eye, and one in the sulcate depression of frontal costa) 
 brown, with a black and a white border. 
 
 Besides the black on wings and legs already mentioned, there 
 
20 The Rocky Mountain Locust 
 
 are the following characteristic black marks : an annulus near tips 
 of palpi, the inner borders of the mandibles, a spot at the upper 
 outer corner of clypeus, a spot running narrowly around hind border 
 of eyes and then from about the middle of the eye, broadening to 
 thorax; abroad patch on the upper side of anterior half of pro- 
 thorax, zig-zag beneath, and enclosing two pale subquadrate spots, 
 the upper anterior one across the second suture, the lower one 
 between the second and third sutures ; finally, more or less distinct 
 lines along and around the meso- and meta-thoracic sutures. 
 
 There is also a conspicuous pale yellow mark bordering supe- 
 riorly the black stripe behind the eyes, the black of prothorax 
 inferiorly, at outer base of front wings, from this to base of hind 
 thighs and around bases of both middle and hind thighs. 
 
 In the dead specimens all these colors become more dingy and yelloic . 
 Palpi and front legs in some specimens tinged with red or blue ; 
 the hind tibiae sometimes yellowish instead of red, especially in the 
 middle; at other times bluish. 
 
 Larva. — When newly hatched, the larva is of a uniform pale gray 
 without distinctive marks. It soon, however, becomes mottled with 
 the characteristic marks. After the first molt the hind thighs are 
 conspicuously marked on the ui)per outside with a longitudinal 
 black line ; the thorax is dark with the median dorsal carina and 
 two distinct lateral stripes pale j-ellow, the black extending on the 
 head behind the eyes. The sides of the thorax then become more 
 3'ellow with each molt, the black on the hind thighs less pro- 
 nounced, and the face almost always black. The occiput and ab- 
 domen above are mottled with brown, the former marked with a 
 fine median, and two broader anteriorlj^ converging pale lines, the 
 latter with two rather broken lateral lines of the same color. 
 
 Pupa. — The pupa is characterized by its paler, more yellow 
 color, bringing more strongly into relief the black on the upper part 
 of the thorax and behind the eyes ; by the spotted nature of the 
 face, especially along the ridges, the black being less persistent ; 
 by the isolation of the black subdorsal mark on the two anterior 
 lobes of the prothorax, and by the large size of the wing-pads, 
 which are now dark, with a distinct pale discal spot, and pale veins 
 and borders. The hind shanks incline to bluish rather than red as in 
 the mature insect. The ground-color in the immature states varies 
 from pale yellow to orange-brown and even black, and from pale 
 j-eliow to pure green, as in the varietj^ viridis. In manj^ of the 
 
Characters of the Species. 
 
 21 
 
 larvae there is a distinct pale line along the medio-dorsum ; in 
 others there is no trace of it. 
 
 In the following table of measurements, introduced for com- 
 parison with that given of feimir-ruhrum, the same rules were 
 adopted as in the other case, and particular pains were taken to get 
 specimens from as many parts of the ravaged country as possible ; 
 also, by study of the structural and other peculiarities of spretvs 
 to guard against the chance mixing of specimens of femur-rubrum. 
 
 CALOPTENTJS 8PRETU8. 
 
 Measurements of the Male ; in Hundredths of an Inch. 
 
 Lowest. 
 Highest 
 Average 
 
 Lowest., 
 
 Hisrhept 
 Averaje 
 
 Whole length 
 
 from front of 
 
 head to tip of 
 
 wiug. 
 
 1.10 
 1.40 
 1.28 
 
 1.15 
 1.53 
 1.35 
 
 Length of wing 
 
 beyond base 
 
 of tibia. 
 
 Length of 
 
 abdomen 
 
 beyond base of 
 
 tibia. 
 
 Length of wing 
 
 beyond tip of 
 
 abdomen. 
 
 0.25 
 0.43 
 0,34 
 
 0.04 
 0.12 
 0.05 
 
 Measurements of Female. 
 
 0.28 
 0.52 
 0.35 
 
 0.04 
 0,19 
 0.10 
 
 0.20 
 0.S9 
 0.31 
 
 0.13 
 0.39 
 0.27 
 
 Finally, besides the structural and more reliable characters 
 already given, the two species may, in general terms, be distin- 
 guished by the following less reliable and more inconstant, charac- 
 ters as presented in cabinet specimens : Spretus is the larger 
 species; the antennae are slightly shorter and paler; the occiput 
 and two anterior lobes of the prothorax are more livid and darker ; 
 the third lobe of prothorax broader ; the dark, subdorsal, pro- 
 thoracic mark running from the eyes less pronounced ; the oblique, 
 yellow line from base of wings to base of hind thighs more often 
 obsolete ; the front wings paler toward tips, more ferruginous at 
 base, with larger, more conspicuous spots ; the anal abdominal 
 joint of male also much paler ; the cerci and valves in the female 
 generally shorter and more robust. 
 
 \n femur-rubrum the general hue is more olivaceous and darker, 
 the black mark behind eyes is broader, and that on prothorax 
 also broader, more straight beneath, and seldom enclosing white 
 marks; the pale stripe from base of wing to hind thighs is more 
 conspicuous and the spots on wings subobsolete. 
 
 Such are the distinguishing features between these two insects, 
 
22 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 when the more typical specimens of the western «j9re<w« are com- 
 pared yffiih.femur-rubrum as it occurs around St. Louis. That these 
 distinguishing features will lose their value in proportion as 
 abundant material from all parts of the country is examined and 
 compared, I have not the least doubt ; for I have already shown 
 that such is the fact so far as coloration and length of wing is con- 
 cerned, and the meagre material which 1 have from the East 
 indicates considerable variation and approach in the more important 
 structural characters. 
 
 A THIRD, CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES WHICH IS EASILY 
 CONFOUNDED WITH THE OTHER TWO. 
 
 There is still a third species common in the Mississippi 
 Valley, and particularly along the Atlantic coast, and in 
 the New England States. It is smaller than either the 
 Rocky Mountain or the Red-legged species, but in struc- 
 ture and relative length of wing much more nearly 
 resembles the former than the latter ; in other words, its 
 relative length of wing enables it to fly with almost the 
 same facility as its Rocky Mountain congener. This 
 species I have called the Atlantic Migratory Locust, and 
 it is described below, in comparison with its close allies : 
 
 Caloptentjs Atlanis, Riley. — Length to tip of abdomen, 0.70 
 — 0.85 inch ; to tip of closed wings, 0.92 — 1.05 inches. At once 
 distinguished from femur-vubrum by the notched character of the 
 anal abdominal joint in the male and by the shorter, less tapering 
 cerci ; also by the greater relative length of wings which extend, 
 on an average, nearly one-third their length beyond the tip of the 
 abdomen, in the dried specimens ; also by the larger and more dis- 
 tinct spots on the wings— in all which characters it much more 
 closely resembles spretus than femur-rubrum. From spretus, again, 
 it is at once distinguished by the smaller size, the more distinct 
 separation of the dark mark running from the eyes on the pro- 
 thorax and of the pale line from base of wings to hind thigh ; also 
 by the anal joint in the $, tapering more suddenly and by the two 
 lobes forming the notch being less marked ; also by the pale marks 
 on the outside of hind thighs being much more distinctly relieved. 
 From both species it is distinguished not only by its smaller size 
 
Characters of the Species. 23 
 
 but by the deeper, more livid color of the dark parts, and the 
 paler yellow of the light parts— the colors thus more strongly 
 contrasting. 
 
 Just as the typical femur-rubrum is at once distinguished from 
 the typical spretus by the characters indicated ; so Atlanis, though 
 structurally nearer to spretus, is distinguished from it at a glance 
 by its much smaller size and darker, more marbled coloring. The 
 contrast is all the greater in the living specimens, and I have seen 
 BO specimens of spretus that at all approach it in these respects. 
 
 Whether this is the femur-rubrum as defined by DeGeer or by 
 Harris, it is almost impossible to decide, though Harris's figure of 
 Jemur-rubrum better represents it than the true femur-rubrum, as 
 subsequently defined by Thomas, and as found in Illinois and 
 Missouri. 
 
 It has always been a question among orthopterists, 
 whether spretvs should be considered specifically distinct 
 irova. femur-ritbrum, and Mr. Uhler has himself expressed 
 to me his doubts as to the two being distinct. This inde- 
 cision, which I myself very freely shared, may be attrib- 
 uted principally to the fact that the species just described 
 {Atlanis) has very generally been mistaken for femur- 
 rubrum, and that the accounts of this latter rising into 
 the air in swarms have in reality had reference to the 
 former species. The only reference to this longer-winged 
 species, in the East, that I am acquainted with, is that by 
 Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., whose mention of the occurrence 
 of spretus in Maine and Massachusetts, as exhibited by 
 specimens in the museum of the Peabody Academy of 
 Science, {Am. Naturalist^ Vol. VIII, p. 502), refers to this 
 species, as I have ascertained by specimens submitted to 
 me. This Atlanis as it occurs in the Mississippi Valley, 
 varies somewhat from the typical form as found in the 
 mountain regions of the Atlantic, being somewhat larger. 
 It is found with femur-ruhrum in varying proportions, 
 sometimes predominating, at others in small numbers, or 
 
24 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 entirely absent. As a rule it is most abundant on open 
 prairies, and in spring and summer is always found in such 
 situations. It matures rather later than spretus, in the 
 same latitude but earlier than femur -rubrwn^ which is not 
 at all infrequent in timber. 
 
 Whether these three insects, as here defined, are really 
 distinct species, or only races of one and the same, is a 
 question that each individual entomologist will decide for 
 himself, according to his idea of what constitutes a species. 
 All discussion at the present day as to whether we are 
 dealing with species or varieties in the lower classes of ani- 
 mals, is more or less puerile. Naturalists have no fixed 
 standard as to what constitutes a species, and are fast com- 
 ing to the conviction that there is no such thing in nature, 
 and that the term is conventional — an abstract conception. 
 Yet it is the custom, in entomology and botany more par- 
 ticularly, to separate by names, under this term species, 
 forms that are separable and show constant difierences ; 
 and the separation of such by the study of large material, 
 and their life-histories is of far more weight and value 
 than that by the examination and description, however 
 detailed, of one or two individuals. As ordinary distinc- 
 tions go, however, there can be no doubt as to the specific 
 distinctness of these three forms, notwithstanding my own 
 conviction that they merge into one another through excep- 
 tional intermediate individuals. I have little doubt that 
 they will cross with each other and produce fertile progeny, 
 just as many species of plants are known to do ; but such 
 crossing, if it occurs, must be more frequent between 
 femur-ruhrum and Atlwiis than between either of these 
 and spretus ; because this last is the most eflEectually sep- 
 arated geographically — a fact proved alike by its dying 
 out east of the 94th meridian, and by its perishing when 
 
Characters of the S2)eeies. 25 
 
 artificially transported in the egg and hatotied iu the 
 Atlantic States.* 
 
 It is in this, as it is in almost every other instance where 
 large material from widely different parts of the country 
 is examined ; the lines which are easily drawn between 
 species characterized from single individuals, break do^vn, 
 and continually remind us of the arbitrary nature of spe- 
 cific definitions, and of the fact that most of the species, a& 
 defined among lower animals and plants, have no real ex- 
 istence in nature. There are races of femur -ruhrum which 
 approach even the larger differentialis as much as they 
 approach spretiis. In short, without speculating on the com- 
 mon origin, in the past, of all these species — and, indeed, 
 of all species composing present genera — we behold, in a 
 broad sense, a short-winged species {femur-rubrum) com- 
 mon to the whole country between the Rocky Mountains 
 and the Atlantic, giving way, in the higher altitudes alike 
 of the Rocky Mountain and the White Mountain, and 
 probably of the Alleghany regions, to a long-winged one ; 
 and the reason why the western long-winged species 
 is more disastrous than that of the East, is doubtless 
 due to its larger size and to the larger extent of table land 
 in which it breeds, as well as to the fact that the western 
 climate is more subject to excessive drouths, which cut off 
 the supply of nourishment at a time when the insects are 
 acquiring wings, and thus oblige them to migrate — such 
 conditions occurring much more rarely in the home of the 
 eastern species. In the lower country on either side of 
 the Mississippi, the typical characters of the three sjjecies 
 are more liable to vary and to approach one another. The 
 future orthopterist, as he studies material fi'om all parts 
 
 * See an observation by Mr. S. S. Rathvon, of Lancaster, Pa., who concludes- 
 from experiment, that the climate there is " unwholesome " to the species. (Am- 
 Entoinologist, II, p. 88.) 
 
26 The Rooky Mountain Locust. 
 
 of the country, will very likely write : Calojytenus femur- 
 ruhrum^ DeGeer, var. sj^retus, Thomas, var. Atlanis, Riley; 
 but the broad fact will remain that these three forms — 
 call them races, varieties, species, or what we will — are 
 separable, and that they each have their own peculiar 
 habits and destiny. 
 
 COMPARISONS OF THE THREE ALLIED SPECIES IN THEIR 
 EARLY STAGES. 
 
 Comparisons of the immature stages of these three species show 
 that, when large material is examined, femur -ruhrum, and Atlanis 
 are more nearly allied than this last and spretus, though, as in the 
 mature insects, they approach each other through exceptional 
 individuals. 
 
 In the first stage, spretus has a decidedly ferocious look, the head 
 being out of all proportion to the rest of the body. The colors are 
 brown, gray and dull white, the general tint being light gray, and 
 the insect presenting a mottled and speckled appearance. The 
 antennse have several joints less than when mature, and are more 
 thick and clavate. The frontal ridge is more prominent and deeply 
 sulcate. The cerci extend beyond the rounded tip of the abdomen. 
 The tarsi show the three joints, but the middle one less distinctly 
 than afterwards. The medio-dorsum from vertex to near the tip of 
 the abdomen, is carinate and pale. Of the dark dots and marks 
 the most conspicuous and persistent (for some specimens are much 
 darker than others) are, one behind the eyes, a subquadrate one on 
 the side of the meta-thorax, a crescent streak on the sides of the 
 swollen end of the hind femora, and two spots on the bulbous base of 
 the hind tibiae. In the second stage the face with very rare excep- 
 tions is pitchy black, the top of the head showing the three charac- 
 teristic rows of transverse black marks on a rust-brown ground, the 
 outer rows curving around the eyes, and the middle one broadest 
 and divided by a narrow medial, pale line ; the rust-brown color 
 continues, with more irregular black marks on the prothorax, nar- 
 rowing toward its middle ; on each side of it the anterior part of 
 the prothorax is black, relieved below by a conspicuous, arched 
 pale line, and this again with a more or less distinct dark lateral 
 mark beneath. The cheeks are mottled with rust-brown and edged 
 behind with yellow; the head beneath, and palpi, except a black 
 rim around tips, are pale yellowish. The other colors are much as 
 
Characters of the Species. 27 
 
 in the mature insects. "With each succeeding stage the broad and 
 pale streaks of prothorax intensify, and as soon as the hind wing- 
 pads are turned up over the front pair, viz., in the fourth stage, the 
 pale spot at the base which becomes so conspicuous in the pupa, is 
 visible. The black face after the first molt is quite characteristic, 
 and often endures to the pupa state. 
 
 Atlanis, in the first stage, is distinguished by its deeper, more 
 livid, or rosy, less speckled appearance, and more strongly contrast- 
 ing brighter yellow venter. In the subsequent stages these 
 colorational differences still prevail, and the face is not black as in 
 spretus; the pale spot on the hind wing-pads is less conspicuous in 
 the fourth stage, and the pupa is distinguished not only by its 
 smaller size and different color, but by the narrower, more obsolete 
 black marks of the prothorax and by the wing-pads being consider- 
 ably shorter and smaller, the hind pair livid, with only rarely a 
 touch of black at base, and with the pale spot obsolete. The pale 
 streaks on the outside of the hind thighs are always conspicuous. 
 It presents in fact a marked contrast to the pupa of spretus. 
 
 Femur-ruhrum, in the early stages, is distinguished by the gen- 
 erally paler, less livid and greener hue; by the black being more 
 intense and contrasting more with the pale colors ; by the wing- 
 pads having no pale spot, and by the outer black mark on hind 
 thighs showing no pale streaks. 
 
 Spretus, though palest when mature, has altogether the largest 
 amount of black in the immature stages, and notwithstanding the 
 osculant individuals, one who has great familiarity with these three 
 species in life, can distinguish them with great ease at any time 
 after the first molt, and can even distinguish the cast off skins. 
 
 Further, Atlanis invariably has a pale face — yellow or greenish, 
 speckled with gray-brown ; and just as invariably, the outside of 
 the hind thighs, more mottled, with pale oblique streaks through 
 the black. 
 
 Femur -rubrum has a pale face but less speckled, with no pale 
 streaks through black of hind thighs, and with the upper white 
 mark running from the side of the prothorax much the most con- 
 spicuous on the head behind the eyes. 
 
 A GREEN VARIETY OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN" LOCUST. 
 
 In this connection I will also record the occurrence of a 
 variety of spretus, in which all the pale or normally yellow- 
 
28 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 ish-gray parts are bright green. These green individuals 
 are conspicuous among their brown brethren. In the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley they generally constitute about one in a 
 thousand of the progeny of invading swarms; but I have 
 not noticed them among the fresh arrivals from the moun- 
 tains. The green endures from the larva to the perfect 
 state, and I have designated this variety as viridis. It is 
 but a marked colorational variety, in a species which has 
 not heretofore been known to present these colorational 
 differences, and no one having a true conception of the 
 differences of the three species just defined would think 
 of placing this latter on the same grade. 
 
 THE SPECIES IS PURELY AMERICAN. 
 
 As the idea prevails among many of our farmers that 
 our Rocky Mountain Locust is identical with the devastat- 
 ing species of the Old World, and Mr. Z. S. Ragan, in an 
 otherwise excellent essay, read at the annual meeting of 
 the Missouri State Horticultural Society for 1875, gives it 
 as his opinion that our locusts " came over from Asia via 
 Behring's Strait, to British America, and thence extended 
 from time to time over Washington Territory, Oregon, 
 California, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Dakota^ 
 Nevada, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Kansas, 
 Indian Territory, Nebraska, part of Missouri, Iowa, Min- 
 nesota and Wisconsin ;" it may be well to insist here that 
 there is no foundation whatever for such an opinion, and 
 that spretus is a purely American species, occurring in no 
 part of Europe or Asia, 
 
CHAPTER 11. 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL HISTORY. 
 
 THE LOCUST PLAGUE IN THE " OLD WORLD." 
 
 The plague of locusts is as old, nay older, than the Bible, 
 where, in Exodus, we are told how they went up over the 
 land of Egypt and " covered the face of the whole earth, 
 so that the land was darkened ; and they did eat every 
 herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the 
 hail had left ; and there remained not any green thing in 
 the trees, or in the herbs of the field, throughout all the 
 land of Egypt." * Paulus Orosius tells us that in the year 
 of the world 3800, such infinite myriads of locusts wore 
 blown from the coast of Africa into the sea and drowned, 
 
 [Fi?. 5.1 
 
 • Migratory Locust of Europe. 
 
 that, being cast upon the shore, they emitted a stench 
 greater than could have been produced by the carcasses of 
 one hundred thousand men, and caused a general pesti- 
 
 * Exodus, X, 15. 
 
 (20) 
 
30 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 lence.* Numerous, indeed, are the accounts of general 
 devastation, pestilence and famine that have frequently 
 followed in the wake of these locusts in the East, and 
 travelers in South Africa, Asia and South Europe, have 
 left us abundant records of the fearful devastations of this 
 " Army of the Great God,'" as the Arabs terra these migrat- 
 ing hosts. Their history is one of dire calamity and deso- 
 lation ; and their devastations have become part of the 
 history of nations : they have even been perpetuated in 
 coins. Those who have the curiosity to acquamt them- 
 selves with the history of locusts in the more ancient parts 
 of the world, can not do better than refer to Kirby and 
 Spence,f or to the compilation published in this country 
 by Frank Cowan. J It suffices here to state that the inju- 
 ries by locusts in the desert countries bordering mountain 
 ranges in the East, are by no means matters of past his- 
 tory only, but that they are felt occasionally at the pres- 
 ent time as they have been for all time past. In 1866, 
 during the same year as our previous great invasion, Alge- 
 ria and the whole country in the north of Africa, was 
 severely visited, causing the famine of 1867, and the epi- 
 demics which followed. In 1874, these insects caused 
 serious alarm in the same parts of Africa ; and M. H. 
 Brocard tells us that in the three subdivisions of Constan- 
 tine, Setiff and Batna, 4,820 hectolitres (about 14,000 bush- 
 els) of eggs were collected. § Every year since, they have 
 done serious injury in parts of Eurojje, and this very year 
 (1877) reports of fearful destruction come from Tripoli 
 and Barbary. The species most conspicuous in its devas- 
 tations, especially in Central Europe, is the Migratory 
 
 * Oros, Contra Pag. 1, V, c. 2. 
 
 + Introduction to Ent. I, Letter VII, London, 1828. 
 
 % Curious History of Insects, pp. 101—131, Phila., 1875. 
 
 § Comptes Bendus, Paris Academy, Jan. 25, 1875. 
 
Chronological History. 41 
 
 Detailed accounts of this invasion, and of the destitution 
 and suflfering which resulted therefrom in the different 
 States, will be found in the author's Seventh Annual 
 Report on the Insects of Missouri. In that Report, in 
 endeavoring to forecast the probable injury the following 
 spring, in Missouri and adjoining country, I wrote as 
 follows : 
 
 Setting aside possible but not probable injury from a new inva- 
 sion, we may consider the probable injury tliat will result in 1875, 
 from the progeny of those which came in 1874. The eggs which 
 are deposited on southerly hill-sides often liatch before cold weather 
 sets in, if the fall be warm and protracted, while many hatch soon 
 after the frost is out of the ground in the spring. Yet the great 
 bulk of them will not hatch till into April. That most of the eggs 
 will hatch may be taken for granted unless we have very abnormal 
 climatic conditions, and unprecedentedly wet and cold weatlier 
 following a mild and thawing spell. The young issuing from 
 these eggs will, also, in all probability, do much damage, as they 
 did in the spring and summer of 1867. But the actual daniaije 
 can not be foretold, as so much depends on circumstances. In 1867, 
 in many counties of Kansas and Missouri, where the ground had 
 been filled with eggs the previous fall, little harm was done in the 
 spring — so small a percentage of the eggs rame to anything and so 
 unmercifully were the young destroyed by natural enemies. A 
 severe Irost kills the young after they have hatched, where a mod- 
 erate frost does not affect them. * * * Following a rather 
 mild February the March of '67 was a very severe one, the ther- 
 mometer frequently indicat in sr 18 degrees below zero, and accord- 
 ing to Mr. W. F. Goble, of Pleasant Ridge, Kansas, who wrote aa 
 excellent account of the insect, this severe weather caused many 
 of the eggs to perish ; and he expresses the opinion that "judging 
 from the voraciousness of those that did appear, I doubt not Kansas 
 would have been made a perfect desert if all had lived." 
 
 If after the young hoppers hatch we have much cold wet 
 weather, great numbers of them will congregate in sheltered places 
 and perish before doing serious harm ; but if, on the contrary, our 
 sprmg and early summer prove dry and hot (which is hardly to be 
 expected after the several dry seasons lately experienced) much 
 damage will result from these young locusts, where no effort is 
 made to prevent it. They will ruin most garden truck, do much 
 injury to grain, and affect plants very much in the order previously 
 indicated under the licad of "Food-plants." They will become 
 more and more injurious as they get older, until, m about two 
 months from the time ot hatching, or about the middle of June, 
 they will begin to acquire wings, become restless, and in all proba- 
 bility leave the locality where they were born, either wending 
 their way further south or returning in the direction whence their 
 
42 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 parents came the previous year. Some bevies may even pass to 
 the eastward of the limit line reached in 1874, and fall upon some 
 of the counties bordering that line ; but they will lay no eggs, and 
 will, in time, run their course and perish from debility, disease and 
 parasites. 
 
 The verification of the above predictions the following^ 
 spring, was another proof of the soundness of the princi- 
 pal theories advanced in this work ; for while the injury 
 proved greater in many sections than was anticipated, yet 
 the occurrences, in the main, were accurately foreshadowed. 
 
 GENERAL OUTLOOK IN THE SPRING OF 1875. 
 
 The spring of 1875 brought the farmers of the locust 
 region to a crisis somewhat unusual and peculiar. Two 
 previous years of drouth and chinch bugs, followed by the 
 locust incursion of the previous fall, had armed the peo- 
 ple with unusual energy, born of hope and necessity, and 
 there was everywhere determination to put forth the very 
 best efforts. The opening of the spring favored the exe- 
 cution of this purpose. Timely rains and bright weather 
 crowned the seeding time with unusual hope, and a much 
 larger acreage of all spring crops was planted. The ex- 
 perience of previous locust years had been generally for- 
 gotten, and no effort to destroy the eggs had been made. 
 The same genial sun that made wheat, oats, corn and flax 
 grow apace, brought into activity myriads of the dreaded 
 destroyers. Scarcely had the farmer begun to rejoice over 
 a prospect of uncommon promise, when he saw his fields 
 invaded by an enemy that overcame his utmost resistance. 
 The severely stricken region, covering an area variously 
 estimated at from 200 to 270 miles from east to west, and 
 from 250 to 350 miles from north to south, and embracing 
 portions of Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri, presented a 
 variety of experience, some portions being comparatively 
 exempt from injury, while others wore an aspect of devas- 
 
EXPLANATION TO PLATE IL 
 
 Country overrun in 1874, 
 
 Country invaded in 1874, but which suffered less on 
 account of being sparsely settled. 
 
 t'A 
 
 ?^ Country ravaged in 1874, and which suffered most. 
 
Chronological History. 39 
 
 of 1873 was pretty general over a strip of country running 
 from the northern parts of Colorado and southern parts of 
 Wyoming, through Nebraska and Dakota, to the south- 
 western counties of Minnesota, and northwestern counties 
 of Iowa — the injury being most felt in the last two more 
 thickly settled States. The insects poured in upon this 
 country during the summer and laid their eggs in all the 
 more eastern portions reached. The cry of distress that 
 went up from the afflicted people of Minnesota in the fall 
 of that year is still fresh in mind, and the pioneers of 
 Western Iowa, in addition to the locust devastations, suf- 
 fered severe damage from a terrific tornado. During the 
 same year great ravages were also committed by locusts 
 in Southern California. 
 
 THE INVASION OF 1874. 
 
 We now come to the locust visitation of 1874, which 
 will long be remembered as more disastrous, and as caus- 
 ing more distress and destitution than any of its prede- 
 cessors. The calamity was national in its character, and 
 the suffering in the ravaged districts would have been 
 great, and famine and death the consequence, had it not 
 been for the sympathy of the whole country and the ener- 
 getic measures taken to relieve the afflicted people — a sym- 
 pathy begetting a generosity which proved equal to the 
 occasion, as it did in the case of the great Chicago fire, 
 and which will ever redound to the glory of our free Re- 
 public, and of our Union. 
 
 From a very large number of data, culled from every 
 available source, the accompanying map (Plate II) has 
 been prepared, which will at a glance illustrate the country 
 liable to be overrun by this Rocky Mountain scourge, and 
 more especially the territory in the United States east of the 
 mountains, visited in 1874. This last will be seen to em- 
 
40 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 brace the entire States of Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, 
 and portions of Wyoming, Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, 
 Missouri, New Mexico, Indian Territory and Texas. The 
 green color indicates the area over which the greatest 
 injury was done ; -the pink, the area which suffered less, 
 because more sparsely inhabited ; and the salmon, the area 
 which was more or less overrun by them. The map also 
 shows the eastern limit reached by the locusts. The insects 
 were doubtless equally numerous in the northwestern parts 
 of Wyoming and Dakota, and in Montana, for, in fact, 
 they breed there ; but the country is for the most part so 
 barren and so thinly settled that the reports were very 
 meagre. The loss to the States mentioned did not fall far 
 short of fifty millions of dollars. That much of the dam- 
 age resulted from the progeny of the swarms of 1873, 
 which, hatching in the country already indicated, as in- 
 vaded during that year, ravaged the crops of the country 
 ■where they hatched, and eventually spread to the south- 
 east, the records abundantly prove ; but there was like- 
 wise a fresh invasion direct from the mountain region, 
 which added to that of 1873, rendered the year 1874 so 
 memorable. 
 
 On account of the long continued drouth, and the rav- 
 ages of the chinch bug, but little green food was left in 
 Missouri and Kansas for the locusts to destroy. This, 
 however, they took. In most of the invaded counties of 
 Missouri, corn was already too hard to be damaged; but the 
 locusts stripped every green blade, and even the husks, 
 when not already killed by the chinch bug. 
 
 The general direction from which they came was from 
 the northwest, the reports showing remarkable agreement 
 in this respect. The insects came nearly a month earlier 
 than they did in 1866. Kansas suffered, perhaps, most 
 severely. 
 
Clironological History. 31 
 
 Locust {CEdipoda migratoria, Linn), though in Africa 
 and Asia the Acridium perigrinum and the Caloptemcs 
 Italicus have similar destructive and migratory powers. 
 All these insects belong to the same family as our own 
 species, and the last named, even to the same genus. 
 
 LOCUST RAVAGES IN AMERICA. 
 
 While the chronological record of locust invasions and 
 devastations in the " Old World," is full and complete, 
 the record of such invasions in our own country has never 
 been fully written. The most complete record that I know 
 of, is that by Alexander S. Taylor, of Monterey, Cal., pub- 
 lished in the Smithsonian Report for 1858, (pp. 200 — 213), 
 to which I am indebted for the earlier accounts, which 
 follow. From what is here given, it is very evident that 
 these insects have occasionally proved great plagues from 
 the earliest settlement of the country ; and there can be 
 no doubt that from time immemorial, or since our conti- 
 nent assumed its present configuration, they have from 
 time to time played the same role of devastators, and that 
 the only exceptional circumstance about the 1874 and 1876 
 irruptions, compared with those of former years, is the 
 larger area of settled and cultivated country devastated, 
 and the consequent greater amount of distress entailed. 
 
 The earliest record I can find of locust injuries in 
 America, is in Gage's West Indies, under date of the 
 year 1632. In speaking of their visitation in Guatemala, 
 he says : 
 
 " The first year of my abiding there it pleased God to send one 
 of the plagues of Egypt to that country, which was of Locusts, 
 which I had never seen till then. They were after the manner of 
 our Grasshoppers, but somewhat bigger, which did fly about in 
 numbers so thick and infinite that they did truly cover the face of 
 the sun, and hinder the shining forth of the beams of that bright 
 planet. Where they lighted, either upon trees or standing corn, 
 there was nothing expected but ruin, destruction and barrenness ; 
 
32 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 for the corn they devoured, the fruits of trees thej- ate and cou- 
 sumed, and hung so thick upon the branches that with their weight 
 they tore them from the body. The highways were so covered with 
 them that they startled the traveling mules with their fluttering 
 about their heads and feet. My eyes were often struck with their 
 wings as I rode along ; and much ado I had to see my way, what 
 with a montero wherewith I was fain to cover my face, what with 
 the flight of them which were still before my eyes. Where they 
 lighted in the moucrtains and highways, there they left behind them 
 their young ones, which were found creeping upon tlie ground, 
 read}' to threaten such a second year's plague, if not prevented ; 
 wherefore all the towns were called, with spades, mattocks and 
 shovels, to dig long trenches and thereinto bury the young ones." 
 
 The early Jesuit missionaries of California have left nu- 
 merous records of their injuries on the Pacific coast. 
 Father Michael del Barco records their visitations in Cal- 
 ifornia in 1722, 1746, and the three succeeding years ; 
 also in 1753, 1754 and 1765. Clavigero, in his History of 
 California, also gives a very full description of these pests. 
 
 In 1827, 1828 and 1834, they destroyed all the crops in 
 the rancheros and missions, and in 1838 and 1846, again 
 did great damage in Upper California. " For more than 
 half a century they have troubled the Argentine Republic 
 in South America. In a latitude corresponding with Lou- 
 isiana and Texas, but in the southern hemisphere, they have 
 made agriculture worthless, and rendered the settlement 
 of that magnificent country between the Andes and the 
 Atlantic Ocean, by a dense population, impossible." * Dr. 
 B. A. Gould gives a graphic account of a swarm of locusts 
 in 1873 that devastated Cordoba, a swarm at least twenty 
 miles in length and six miles in breadth, extending for an 
 altitude of 5" like a thick, black trail of smoke.f Of the 
 ravages of locusts in the Atlantic States, I shall speak 
 more particularly in a future chapter. We have records 
 of great injury fi-om locusts in New Hampshire, Massa- 
 
 * Rev. Edw. Fontaine, in New Orleans Times, March, 1866. 
 t Anier. Journ. of Sc, Dec , 1873. 
 
Chronological History. 33 
 
 chusetts and Vermont, at several periods during the latter 
 part of the last century. 
 
 HISTORY OP THK RAVAGES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN 
 LOCUST 
 
 Coming now to the chronological history of the particu- 
 lar Rocky Mountain species in question, anything like 
 substantial records fail us, and in order to give the 
 following summary of its devastations during the present 
 century, I have had to ransack the files of hundreds of 
 periodicals, and to depend on a number of fugitive arti- 
 cles published during the last twenty-five years. 
 
 In 1818 and 1819, according to Neill's History of Min- 
 nesota, vast hordes of locusts appeared in Minnesota, 
 eating everything in their course; in some cases the ground 
 being covered with them to the depth of three or four 
 inches. In the same years they were extremely injurious 
 in the Red River country in Manitoba. In 1820, or the 
 succeeding year, we hear of their falling upon the western 
 counties of Missouri, as described in the following items : 
 
 "We were informed by old residents of "West Mis«!ouri and 
 some of the Indians, that long ago, I think it was in 1820, there 
 W!is just such a visitation of grasshoppers as is now afflicting us. 
 Th y came in the autumn by millions, devouring every green thing, 
 but too late to do much harm. They literally filled the earth with 
 their eggs, and then died. The next si)ring they hatched out, but 
 did but little harm, and when full fledged left- for parts unknown 
 Other districts of country have been visited by them, but so far as 
 I could learn, they have done but little harm after the first year." — 
 S. T. Kelsey, Ottawa, (now of Hutchinson,) Kansas, in Prairie 
 Farmer, June 15, 1867, p. 395. 
 
 A Missouri paper publishes a statement by an old settler that 
 great numbers of grasshoppers appeart-d in Sept. 1820, doing much 
 damage. The next spring they hatched out, destroi/ing the cotton, 
 flax, hemp, wheat and tobacco crops ; but the corn escaped uninjured. 
 About the middle of June they all disappeared, flying off in a south- 
 east direction. — Western Rural, 1867. 
 
 It is reasonable to suppose that these 1820 swarms also 
 ravaged Kansas and the country to the northwest, very 
 3 
 
34 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 much as they did in 1874 and 1870, though no records of 
 the fact are to be found, for the simple reason that the 
 western country was unsettled by farmers. We know that 
 during the same and the previous year the crops were 
 destroyed in many parts of Manitoba, and the migrations 
 of 1819 and 1820 must have been very similar to those of 
 1873 and 1874. 
 
 In 1S45, and again in 1849, we have accounts, from vari- 
 ous sources, of their swarming in Texas. In 1855 there 
 was another very general irruption all over the western 
 part of the continent. Says Mr. Taylor, in the Smithso- 
 nian Report already alluded to: "Up to the 11th of 
 October, 1855, and commencing about the middle of May, 
 these insects extended themselves over a space of the 
 earth's surface much greater than has ever before been 
 noted. They covered the entire Territories of Washing- 
 ton and Oregon, and every valley of the State of Califor- 
 nia, ranging from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern base of 
 the Sierra Nevada ; the entire territories of Utah and 
 New Mexico; the immense grassy prairies lying on the 
 eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains ; the dry mountain 
 valleys of the republic of Mexico, and the countries of 
 Lower California and Central America ; and also those 
 portions of the State of Texas which resemble, in physi- 
 cal characteristics, Utah and California. The records 
 prove that the locusts extended themselves, in one year, 
 over a surface comprised within thirty-eight degrees of 
 latitude, and, in the broadest part, eighteen degrees of 
 longitude. 
 
 " On several days in June, July and August, of 1855, 
 the grasshoppers (or langostas of the Spaniards) were 
 seen in such incredible numbers in the valley of the Sacra- 
 mento, in California; in the valley of Colima, Southwest 
 Mexico ; in the valley of the Great Salt Lake ; in Western 
 
Chronological History. 35 
 
 Texas, and in certain valleys of Central America, that 
 they filled the air like flakes of snow on a winter's day, 
 and attacked everything green or succulent with a 
 voracity and despatch destructive to the hopes of the 
 agriculturalists." 
 
 They are described as reducing the Mormons of Salt 
 Lake, during that year, to a simpler diet than that of John 
 the Bajitist, for the people had to fall back on the locusts 
 without the honey ; and they caused a good deal of sufier- 
 ing in the then Territories of Kansas, Nebraska and 
 Minnesota, The summer of 1855, like that of 1874, was 
 exceedingly dry — the driest, in fact, that had been known 
 for ten years. 
 
 In 1856 they again made their appearance in parts of 
 Utah, California and Texas, but in diminished numbers. 
 In Minnesota, however,* and in Western and North- 
 western Iowa their ravages during this year seem to have 
 been greater. 
 
 In 1857 we hear of them again in various parts of the 
 Northwestf and around the Assiniboine settlement in 
 Manitoba,! and they destroyed the entire crop of a region 
 of country extending from the base of the third plateau 
 to the Gulf of Mexico, 150 miles in length, and about 80 
 miles in breadth, including the entire valley of the Gauda- 
 loupe, and much of the territory watered by the Colorado 
 and San Antonio rivers. Throughout this whole area of 
 12,000 square miles every green thing cultivated by man 
 was consumed, and how much further northwest the 
 ravages extended is not known. § They reached as far 
 
 east as Central Iowa. 11 
 
 ,_i 
 
 * Rep. of Dept. of Agr., 1863. p. 36. i-.<i >J 
 
 + Walsh's 111. Ent. Hep , pp. 02-3; Prairie Farmer, April 25, 1868. 
 
 X Canada Farmer, Aug. 15, 1874. 
 
 § Rev. E. Fontaine, loc. cit. 
 
 i Prairie Farmer, April 25, 1868. 
 
36 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 It is probable that part of the injury reported in 1856 
 and 1857 east of the Rocky Mountains was caused by the 
 progeny from the immense swarms that swept over the 
 country in 1855 ; and it is quite likely that some of them 
 reached Missouri, for Mr. H. B. Palmer, of Hartville, has 
 related to me that, about 1857, these insects passed through 
 a portion of Wright county, from north to south, stripping 
 everything on their way. 
 
 In 1860, as several Kansans have informed me, these 
 locusts came and did much damage around Topeka, re- 
 maining a few days and leaving the last of August. This 
 must have been a limited and rather local swarm. 
 
 In 1864 we again hear of locust invasions into Manitoba, 
 Minnesota, and around Sioux City, Iowa, their eggs hatch- 
 ing and the young doing much damage the following year,. 
 1865. In Colorado one of the most destructive visitations 
 ever known there came in 1864 from the northwest, doing 
 much damage, as did the progeny in 1865. 
 
 The year 1866 was another marked locust year, and the 
 first, since that of 1855, in which the damage was sufficiently 
 great and wide-spread as to attract national attention. 
 The insects swarmed over the Northwest and did great 
 damage in Kansas, Nebraska, and Northeastern Texas, and 
 invaded the western counties of Missouri very much as 
 they did in 1874. They came, however, about a month 
 later than in that year. They were often so thick that 
 trains were seriously delayed on account of the immense 
 numbers crushed on the track. Mr. Walsh has published 
 a full record of this invasion in the Report already cited.* 
 
 In 1867 the progeny of those which fell upon the country 
 the previous year did more or less damage, which was ex- 
 tensively reported during the early part of the growing 
 
 * First Annual Rep. aa Acting State Ent. of 111., pp. 83-4 (1868). 
 
Clironological History 37 
 
 season. The damage, however, was not general, and good 
 crops were harvested in most of the country invaded the 
 year before. But later in the season fresh swarms came 
 from the Rocky Mountain region, and fell upon the fertile 
 plains of the Mississippi Valley. Thus there were two 
 fresh invasions, the one following the other, in the years 
 
 1866 and 1867 ; an occurrence which is quite exceptional, 
 and to which the immense damage done during the latter 
 year is, in great part, attributable. Mr. Walsh {loc. cit.) 
 has given us, at great pains, a pretty full record of the 
 doings of locusts in 1867, and from said record he makes 
 it quite clear that the invasion of 1866 was followed in 
 
 1867 by a fresh, though less extensive one, direct from 
 the Rocky Mountain region. I may add that a number of 
 scraps and records of the insect's doings during those two 
 years, other than those he has brought together, bear out 
 his deductions. The locusts also fell upon Utah in 
 immense swarms in 1867. 
 
 During the subsequent years of 1868 and 1869 we hear 
 more or less of the remnants of these two vast swarms 
 from the mountain region, and of their injury in the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley; but their numbers are always diminishing 
 and their enemies increasing, so that during the latter year 
 not a healthy individual was to be found, and in 1870 the 
 race had nearly vanished from the invaded country — at 
 least from its eastern portions. In 1868, they were par- 
 ticularly disastrous in Utah and the Red River Settlement 
 of British America. 
 
 . In 1869 there were still some remnants left of the 1867 
 invasion. From Leavenworth, Kansas, I received some, 
 sent in a tin box, and in reaching me there was but one 
 left, which, having eaten the others, was master of the 
 situation. They hatched out in countless numbers from 
 the 20th to 24th of March, in Holt county. Mo., and 
 
38 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 were destructive east of Nemaha county, Kansas; but the 
 injury that year was trifling, and the records show that 
 the insects became more and more impotent. 
 
 During this year, 1869, and the two following years, as 
 will be seen from what is said in Chapter IX, many of the 
 common locusts of the country were unusually numerous 
 and desti-uctive ; and the reports of their injuries must 
 not be confounded with those of the Rocky Mountain spe- 
 cies. Mr. Cyrus Thomas i^Am. Ent. II, p. 82,) reports 
 finding this species, in June, 1869, around St. Joseph, Mo. 
 He says : " We arrived very early in the morning, and 
 then they appeared to be somewhat torpid ; yet when 
 those in the grass were disturbed by the hogs, which were 
 feeding upon them, they hopped about quite briskly. 
 Swarms of them, as I was informed, had been flying over 
 that section for a week previous to our arrival." 
 
 In 1870, what was probably this last species, swept down 
 upon the country around Algona, Iowa, and in 1871 
 the progeny " hatched by myriads till after the first of 
 June," and left about the first of July.* During this year 
 their injuries were also reported in parts of Utah and 
 Colorado. 
 
 In 1872 again they did some harm in parts of Kansas, 
 for Mr. Albert Cooper, of Beloit, Kan., wrote me (Sept. 1, 
 1872): "They came down upon us a few days ago, and 
 are now eating up everything green." Mr, J. D. Putnam, 
 who spent the summer of 1872 in the Rocky Mountains, 
 also wrote me " that spretus was quite numerous in the 
 valley of the Troublesome River." 
 
 THE INVASION OF 18T3. 
 
 During the years 1873 and 1874, we had a repetition, in a 
 great measure, of the years 1866 and 1867, The invasion 
 
 * Western Rural, Chicago, September 26, 1874. 
 
Chronological History. 43 
 
 tation that changed the verdure of spring into the barren- 
 ness of winter. 
 
 The tract in which the injury done by the destructive 
 enemy was worst, was confined to the two western tiers 
 of counties in Missouri, and the four tiers of counties in 
 Kansas, bounded by the Missouri river on the east. The 
 greatest damage extended over a strip 25 miles each side 
 of the Missouri river, from Omaha to Kansas City, and 
 then extending south to the southwestern limit of Mis- 
 souri. About three-quarters of a million of people were 
 to a greater or less extent made sufferers. The experience 
 of different localities was not equal or uniform. Con- 
 tiguous farms sometimes presented the contrast of abund- 
 ance and utter want, according to the caprices of the in- 
 vaders, or according as they hatched in localities favorable 
 to the laying of the eggs. This fact gave rise to contra- 
 dictory reports, each particular locality generalizing from 
 its own experience. The fact is, however, that over the 
 region described there was a very general devastation, in- 
 volving the destruction of three-fourths of all field and 
 garden crops. 
 
 While the injury was greatest in the area defined above, 
 the insects hatched in more or less injurious numbers from 
 Texas to British America — the prevalence of the insects 
 in Manitoba being such that in many parts little or no 
 cultivation was attempted. 
 
 For the relief of the sufferers there came the frequent 
 and growing rains, carrying spring far into the usually 
 droughty summer, and giving the subsequent planting an 
 admirable start. Then when the pests had increased to 
 their highest number, and were working the most exten- 
 sive ruin, the flood gates of the clouds were opened, and 
 for thirty-six hours an unceasing torrent swept large num- 
 bers of them into the streams, until the surface of most 
 
44 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 running water was black with locusts. For the destitu- 
 tion of Kansas an extra session of the Legislature pro- 
 vided partial relief. In both Kansas and Missouri, wher- 
 ever the scourge extended, seeds were to some extent 
 distributed by the Department of Agriculture, and by 
 enterprising seedsmen, and committees were sent to more 
 favored regions to obtain contributions of money, pro- 
 visions and seed. 
 
 Early in May the reports from the districts most severely 
 visited were very conflicting : the insects were confined 
 within short radii of their hatching grounds. The season 
 was propitious, and where the insects did not occur, every- 
 thing promised well. As the month drew more and more 
 to a close, the insects extended the area of destruction, 
 and the alarm became general. By the end of the month 
 the non-timbered portions of the country most afiected 
 were as bare as in winter. Here and there patches of 
 Amarantus Blitum, and a few jagged stalks of Milkweed 
 (Asclepias) served to relieve the monotony. An occasional 
 oat field, or low piece of prairie would also remain green ; 
 but with these exceptions one might travel for days by 
 buggy and find everything eaten ofi", even to the under- 
 brush in the woods. The suffering was great and the 
 people were well-nigh disheartened. Cattle and stock of 
 all kinds, except hogs and poultry, were driven away to 
 more favored counties, and relief committees were organ- 
 ized. Many families left the country under the influence 
 of the temporary panic and the unnecessary forebodings 
 and exaggerated statements of pessimists. Chronic loafers 
 and idlers even made some trouble and threatened to seize 
 the goods and property of the well-to-do. Relief work 
 was, however, carried on energetically, and with few ex- 
 ceptions no violence occurred. Early in June the insects 
 began to leave ; the farmers began replanting with a will. 
 
Chronological History. 45 
 
 As the month advanced, the prospects brightened, and by 
 the Fourth of July the whole country again presented a 
 green and thrifty appearance. 
 
 The immediate damage was the loss of labor expended 
 in planting, and the seeding for about two-thirds of the 
 crop acreage of the country, to which may be added the 
 destruction of the fruit and the tame grasses. Detailed 
 returns of the damage done in Missouri, showed a loss of 
 over fifteen millions of dollars. The amount of loss re- 
 deemed by crops that succeeded after the insects left, it 
 was impossible to determine ; but the amount was offset by 
 the injury both temporary and permanent, to fruit, fruit 
 trees, vineyards, gardens, meadows and pastures ; by the 
 fact that such crops as flax, castor-beans, etc., were not 
 estimated in the calculation ; and lastly, by the injury to 
 stock, as the animals were necessarily driven out of the 
 country, and by the general depreciation of property. 
 
 Missouri had never before been visited by a calamity so 
 appalling, and so disastrous in its results, as the locust 
 ravages of 1875. Other years have brought drought, 
 chinch bugs, and partial or total failure of particular 
 crops, but no event ever before so completely prostrated 
 the country within which the ravages occurred. The sud- 
 denness and desolating power with which the attack came, 
 where often the possessor of promising crops deemed them 
 safe, acted as a paralysis upon those very faculties that are 
 engaged in the forethought and deliberation necessary to 
 self-preservation or concerted action. The farmer saw his 
 green acres smiling with glorious hope to-day, and to- 
 morrow, perhaps, all barren and bleak as in winter. It is 
 no wonder that many communities were panic-stricken. 
 Previous disaster had already brought many sections to a 
 critical and suffering point, so that even during the winter 
 the Legislature was appealed to for aid. Stock had been 
 
46 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 dying ; feed of all kinds was scarce, and whole communi- 
 ties were relying on the promise of the spring. For this 
 reason the locust ravages were all the more desolating and 
 discouraging. 
 
 Some cases of actual starvation were reported in the 
 papers, but I was unable to learn of a single instance which 
 could be authenticated by the names of the suffering 
 parties. Replies to the question, " Did any cases of actual 
 destitution or starvation positively occur in your county ?" 
 from over a hundred correspondents in the counties in 
 Missouri which suffered most, with scarcely an exception 
 were to the effect that while there was great destitution 
 no cases of starvation occurred. 
 
 The great exodus of the flying swarms from our borders 
 began early in June, and reached its acme about the mid- 
 dle of the month. Some were leaving up to the last week 
 in the month. The cheering news " they fly, they fly," 
 was wired over the country from Coffeyville, Kansas, on 
 the 29th of May, and a few days later these same words 
 that cheered the waning spirit of General Wolfe as he saw 
 that victory remained with England, and Canada was lost 
 to France, passed along the lines from our western coun- 
 ties, and gladdened the hearts and revived the dying 
 hopes of the suffering farmers. 
 
 I had such confidence in the correctness of the theories 
 which I have advanced, that, in addressing the farmers of 
 Missouri, during the spring when they were most disheart- 
 ened, and while the consternation was greatest, I did not 
 hesitate to assure them that their troubles were temporary; 
 that the insects would leave in time to permit the growth 
 of good crops of most of the products of the soil. Obliged 
 to sail for Europe in June, I told them that I should return 
 in the fall to find them jubilant where then they were dis- 
 couraged. I came back in September. The desolation of 
 
Chrovological History. 47 
 
 June had been followed by a luxuriance of vegetation 
 without parallel. The change wrought in three months 
 was magical ; and as I addressed them again in the midst 
 of plenty, the farmers felt thankful for the confidence and 
 encouragement they had received in such different circum- 
 stances, three months before. 
 
 DESTINATION OF THE DEPARTING SWARMS OF 1875. 
 
 That the insects which left the Mississippi Valley in 
 1875 reached into British America there is abundant proof. 
 The Winnipeg Standard of August 19, 1876, as quoted 
 by Professor Whitman, says : 
 
 The locusts which hatched in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska 
 [in 1875], iu an area of 250 miles from east to west, and 300 miles 
 from north to south, took flight in June, and invariably went north- 
 west, and fell in innumerable swarms upon the regions of British 
 America, adjoining Forts Pelly, Carlton and Ellice, covering an 
 area as large as that they vacated on the Missouri River. They 
 were reinforced by the retiring column from Manitoba, and it 
 seemed to be hoping against hope that the new swarms of 1876 
 would not again descend upon the settlements in the Red River 
 Valley. Intelligence was received here that the insects took flight 
 from the vicinity of Port Pelly on the 10th of July, and then fol- 
 lowed a fortnight of intense suspense. 
 
 Professor G. M, Dawson, of Montreal, wrote me : " You 
 may be interested in knowing that the northward flying 
 swarms in 1875 penetrated a considerable distance into the 
 region west of Manitoba, while most of the insects hatch- 
 ing in the latter province went southeastward when 
 winged, and that large numbers got at least as far east as 
 the Lake of the Woods." In an interesting paper in the 
 Canadian N'aturalist, on the " Appearance and Migrations 
 of the Locusts in Manitoba and the N. W. Territories in 
 the Summer of 1875," Professor Dawson further gives 
 many other valuable records, some of which, as bearing on 
 the question under consideration, I quote entire, as they 
 will hardly bear condensing. 
 
48 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 From the reports now received from Manitoba and various por- 
 tions of the Northwest Territory, and published in abstract with 
 these notes, it would appear that during the summer of 1875 two 
 distinct elements were concerned in the locust manifestation. 
 First, the insects hatching in the province of Manitoba and sur- 
 rounding regions, from eggs left by the western and northwestern 
 invading swarms of the previous autumn ; second, a distinct 
 foreign host, moving, for the most part, from south to north. The 
 locusts are known to have hatched in great numbers over almost the 
 entire area of Manitoba, and westward at least as far as Fort Ellice 
 on the Assiniboine river (long. 101° 20'), and may probably have 
 been produced, at least sporadically, in other portions of the cen- 
 tral regions of the plains ; though in the summer of 1874, this 
 district was nearly emptied to recruit the swarms devastating Mani- 
 toba and the Western States, and there appears to have been little 
 if any influx to supply their place. Still further west, on the 
 plains along the base of the Rocky Mountains, from the 49th 
 parallel to the Red Deer river, locusts are known to have hatched 
 in considerable numbers — but of these more anon. 
 
 Hatching began in Manitoba and adjacent regions in favorable 
 localities as early as May 7th, but does not seem to have become 
 general till about the 15th of the month, and to have continued 
 during the latter part of May and till the 15th of June. * * * 
 
 The destruction of crops by the growing insects, in all the 
 settled regions was very great, and in many districts well nigh 
 complete. The exodus of these broods began in the early part of 
 July, but appears to have been most general during the middle and 
 latter part of that mouth, and first of August. The direction taken 
 on departure was, with very little exception, southeast or south. 
 It is to be remarked, that as there does not seem to have been dur- 
 ing this period auy remarkable persistency of northwest or westerly 
 winds, the insects must have selected those favoring their intended 
 direction of migration, an instinct which has very generally been 
 
 observed elsewhere. 
 
 * * 4f- * * * * 
 
 Foreign swarms from the south crossed the 49th parallel with a 
 wide front stretching from the 98th to the 108th meridian, and are 
 quite distinguishable from those produced in the country, from the 
 fact that many of them arrived before the latter were mature. 
 These flights constituted the extreme northern part of the army 
 returning northward and northwestward from the States ravaged in 
 the autumn of 1874. They appeared at Fort Ellice on the 13th 
 of June, and at Qu'Appelle Fort on the 17th of the same month, 
 favored much no doubt by the steady south and southeast winds, 
 which, according to the meteorological register at Winnipeg, pre- 
 vailed on the 12th of June and for about a week thereafter. After 
 their first appearance, however, their subsequent progress seems to 
 h'lve been comparatively slow, and their advancing border very 
 irregular in outline. They are said to have reached Swan Lake 
 House — the most northern point to wliich they are known to have 
 attained— about July 10th ; while Fort Pelly, further west, and 
 

 f Li ^T2 - ^ , \ /" 
 
EXPLANATION TO PLATE IIL 
 
 ^'^ Country overrun in 1870. 
 
 Country in which eggs were laid sparsely in 1870. 
 
 Country in which eggs were laid thickly. Most 
 threatened in 1877. 
 
Cltronological History. 49 
 
 nearly a degree further south, was reached July 20th, and about 
 seven days were occupied in the journey from there to Swan River 
 Barracks, a distance of only ten miles. 
 
 It is thus obvious not only that vast swarms reached 
 into British America in 1875, from our own country, but 
 that the young hatched there from swarms that had come 
 the previous year from the farther Northwest. 
 
 There was, therefore, north of the 49th j^arallel, a repe- 
 tition of the devastation we were at the time experienc- 
 ing in the States ; the insects hatching there in bulk just 
 about the time they were leaving Texas on the wing. In 
 these facts we get an explanation of 
 
 THE INVASION OP 1876. 
 
 la opposition to contrary opinion widely circulated, I expressed 
 my belief, a year ago, that in Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska, first, 
 there would not hatch as many locusts in the spring as would natu- 
 rally hatch in ordinary seasons from indigenous species; second, 
 that, compared with other parts of the country, those States most 
 ravaged by locusts in the spring and early summer of 1875 would 
 enjoy the greater immunity, during the same season of 1876, not 
 only from locust injuries, but from the injuries of most other nox- 
 ious insects ; that, in sliort, the people of the ravaged section had 
 reason to be hopeful rather than gloomy; that they certainly would 
 not suffer in any general way from locust injuries in the early 
 season ; and that the only way in which they could suffer from the 
 migrating pest was bv fresh swarms, later in the year, from the far 
 Northwest.— Mo. Ent Rep. 8, l-'iS-G. 
 
 Like the other opinions as to the future doings of this 
 insect that I had felt warranted in expressing in an unqual- 
 ified way, this last was fully justified by subsequent events. 
 
 From most of the so-called Western States the crop 
 returns were favorable, though the harvest was in many 
 sections impeded, as it was in 1875, by too much wet 
 weather. In no part of the country was the outlook more 
 flattering than in Western Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, 
 Iowa, and the country so seriously ravaged by locusts the 
 previous year, and the farmers throughout that section of 
 country had seldom been freer from insect ravages, or 
 4 
 
oO The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 more hopeful. The freedom from other noxious insects 
 was everywhere apparent. In parts of the Northwest, as 
 in the East, the conditions were very different from what 
 they were in the Mississippi Valley, and the crops suffered 
 more or less from excessive drouth. In Colorado there 
 was some alarm, as the insects hatched in many localities, 
 but by no means so generally as in the previous years. 
 By persevering effort the farmers generally got the mas- 
 tery over them and made good crops. In Minnesota, 
 again, in some of the southern counties, where eggs were 
 laid, considerable damage was done, though not nearly so 
 much as in 1875. During the second week of July the 
 locusts took wing from that region, and it is interesting to 
 note that they instinctively took a north and northwest 
 course, just as in the previous year the fledged insects had 
 done a few weeks earlier in the season from Missouri and 
 the adjacent country to the west. Numerous dispatches 
 to St. Paul, Minneapolis, and other papers, show conclu- 
 sively that the general direction taken was northwest, 
 and that when the wind was unfavorable the insects 
 awaited a change. 
 
 Such was the condition of things up to the early part of 
 August, and I began to hope that the country that had 
 suffered so much of late years by locust devastations, was 
 at last free from the scourge, and would not be overrun 
 again for some years to come. But the great drouth which 
 prevailed in the Northwest appears to have favored the 
 hatching and development of the insects in that section ; 
 and no sooner had our people begun to congratulate them- 
 selves on the departure of the pests, than reports came of 
 the movement of new swarms from the north and north- 
 west. From that time on, till the approach of winter, 
 their movements were constantly reported and they even- 
 tually overswept a large part of the Western country. 
 
Chronological History. 51 
 
 A detailed record of this invasion published in the 9th 
 Mo. Entomological Report, makes it manifest that the 
 locusts that hatched and did more or less damage in 
 Minnesota early in the year, endeavored to get away to the 
 northwest as soon as they acquired wings. They were 
 subsequently repulsed and borne back again by the winds 
 to their hatching places ; thence south and southwest into 
 Iowa and Nebraska. As they rise and fly from day to day 
 they concentrate and condense, since in passing over a 
 given area during the hotter parts of the day new acces- 
 sions are constantly being made to the flying hosts which, 
 with serried ranks, descend in the afternoon. Thus, in 
 returning, the swarms were thicker and more destructive in 
 places than they were in leaving. Yet the column which 
 thus came back to Minnesota and passed to the south and 
 southwest was more straggling than in 1874, and by the 
 middle of the month it had spent its force and left eggs^ 
 throughout most of the country traversed. Had the 
 invasion consisted of these alone, the damage would have 
 been but slight, and the insects would hardly have reached 
 into Kansas. Their eggs, laid in August, were far more 
 liable to injury and to premature hatching than those laid 
 later. But fi*esh swarms that hatched in Dakota, and 
 farther northwest, followed on the heels of the Minnesota 
 swanns, passing over much of the same country to the 
 east and southward into Colorado, and eventually over- 
 running the larger part of Nebraska and Kansas, the 
 western half of Iowa and some of the western counties 
 in Missouri, and reaching into Indian Territory, Texas, and 
 parts of Arkansas. 
 
 The extent of the region invaded will appear by referring 
 to the map (Plate III). Coming generally later than in 
 1874, they did less damage, and the farmers were in so 
 much better condition to withstand injury, that it was 
 
52 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 much less felt. In most sections visited, part of the 
 migrating hosts remained to lay eggs ; and the invasion 
 of 18V6 is remarkable, as compared with that of 1874, for 
 the large extent of country supplied with eggs. Another 
 fact is noticeable, viz., that the very parts of Minnesota in 
 which eggs were laid in 1875, and the portions of Missoui-i 
 and Kansas in which they were most thickly laid in 1874, 
 escaped in 1876. I can not believe, however, that this is 
 anything more than coincidence. 
 
 A careful review of the invasion, shows that it was made 
 up, 1st, of such insects as hatched out in Southwestern 
 Minnesota, and parts of Colorado, Wyoming and Dakota; 
 2nd, of additions to these from Montana and British 
 America. To what extent those in either of these cate- 
 gories were made up of the progeny from the insects that 
 left our country in 1875 we shall never be able accurately 
 to determine. The proportion of parasitized and diseased 
 insects that left Missouri, doubtless became less among 
 those which hatched and rose from the farther north and 
 west, and we may, I think, take it for granted that the 
 larger part of the swarms that reached Montana and 
 British America, laid eggs. In addition to the vast swarms 
 which invaded the Northwest from the south and southeast, 
 there were in 1875, as Prof. Dawson shows, others that 
 hatched in the Northwest, pouring from British America 
 into our Northwest territory. There were, in fact, in 
 Manitoba and large parts of the Northwest, two grand 
 opposing movements of the winged insects, which thus to 
 some extent replaced each other and coalesced about our 
 northern boundary. Bearing this in mind, we can under- 
 stand the increased area in the Northwest over which eggs 
 were laid that year, and from which the 187G swarms had 
 their source. As no eggs were laid in Manitoba, while the 
 young are known to have abounded in the mountain region 
 
Chronological History 53 
 
 to the west of that province, it is more than probable that 
 the principal source of the 1876 invasion was Montana 
 and the Saskatchawan and Swan River countries. The 
 question as to how far the Northwest breeding grounds are 
 recruited, by the insects which hatch in the more fertile 
 country which I have designated as outside the species' 
 natural habitat, is a most interesting one ; for if thus 
 recruited, there is all the greater incentive for us to exter- 
 minate the young insects which hatch with us. All such 
 questions can be settled, if at all, only by a thorough 
 study of the subject by a properly constituted commission, 
 such as that now charged with the work, under the Depart- 
 ment of the Intei'ior. 
 
 EASTERN LINE REACHED. 
 
 A study of the eastern limit of the invasion of 1876, 
 compared with that of 1874, shows that it is peculiar in 
 reaching farther east in Minnesota and Iowa, and farther 
 south and east in Texas. The limit-line — extending from 
 Clay county, Minnesota ; bulging toward St. Paul, reach- 
 ing southwardly to the center of Iowa; thence westwardly 
 receding to Lawrence, Kansas, and bulging again to South- 
 west Missouri — is more irregular between the 36th and 
 46th parallels than it was in 1874. On an average, how- 
 ever, it does not extend east of the 94th meridian. 
 
 THE OMAHA CONFERENCE. 
 
 As an incident of the 1876 invasion, the Conference of 
 the Executives of those States and Territories which most 
 suffer from locust ravages, and of scientific gentlemen 
 interested in the subject, held at Omaha, Neb., on the 
 25th and 26th of October, is worthy of mention. The 
 following gentlemen, with the writer, were in attendance: 
 Prof. Cyrus Thomas, of Illinois; Gov. Sam'l J. Kirkwood, 
 
54 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 of Iowa ; Gov. Thomas A. Osborne, of Kansas ; Gov. 
 Silas Garber, Ex-Gov. Robert W. Furnas, Prof. C. D. 
 Wilber, Prof. A. D. Williams, and Hon. Geo. W. Frost, 
 of Nebraska ; Gov. John S. Pillsbury, Pennock Pusey, 
 and Prof. A. Whitman, of Minnesota ; Gov. John L. Pen- 
 nington, of Dakota ; and Gov. C. H. Hardin, of Missouri. 
 The Conference was called at the invitation of Gov. 
 Pillsbury, in the hope of obtaining concert of action in 
 the best means of meeting or averting the evil. After a 
 two-days' session, and an instructive interchange of expe- 
 riences and opinions, and the passage of a series of resolu- 
 tions, a committee consisting of John S. Pillsbury, Pen- 
 nock Pusey, and myself, was appointed to prepare for 
 publication the official report of Proceedings, together 
 with a summary of the best means known for counteracting 
 the evil ; and 10,000 copies of a pamphlet of 72 pages 
 were accordingly published last fall. By being widely 
 distributed, this pamphlet has undoubtedly done much 
 good, and has also had no small share in bringing about 
 certain much needed State and National lesrislation. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 NATIVE HOME AND GEOGRAPHICAL RANGE OF 
 THE SPECIES EAST OF THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 SOURCE OF THE DEVASTATING SWARMS THAT REACH INTO 
 THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 There is some difference of opinion as to the precise 
 natural habitat and breeding place of the Rocky Moun- 
 tain Locust, but the facts all indicate that it is by nature 
 a denizen of high altitudes, breeding in the valleys, parks 
 and plateaus of the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado, 
 and especially of Montana, Wyoming and British America. 
 Prof. Cyrus Thomas, who, through his connection with 
 Hayden's geological survey of the Territories, has had an 
 excellent opportunity of studying it, reports it as occurring 
 from Texas to British America and from the Mississippi 
 (more correctly speaking, the line I have indicated) west- 
 ward to the Sierra Nevada range. But in all this vast 
 extent of country, and especially in the more southern 
 latitudes, there is every reason to believe that it breeds 
 continually only on the higher mountain elevations, where 
 the amosphere is dry and attenuated, and the soil sel- 
 dom gets soaked with moisture. Prof. Thomas found it 
 most numerous in all stages of growth along the higher 
 valleys and canyons of Colorado, tracing it up above the 
 perennial snows, where the insect must have hatched, as it 
 was found in the adolescent stage. In crossing the moun- 
 
 (55) 
 
56 The Rocky 2Ioimtain Locust. 
 
 tains in Colorado it often gets chilled in passing the snows, 
 and thus perishes in immense numbers. The bears of this 
 locality desire no better condiment wherewith to season 
 their usual repasts. 
 
 My own belief is that the insect is at home in the higher 
 altitudes of Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, 
 Northwestern Dakota, and British America. It breeds in 
 all this region, but particularly on the vast hot and dry 
 plains and plateaus of the last named Territories and on 
 the plains west of the mountains ; its range on the east 
 being bounded, perhaps, by that of the buflalo grass. Mr. 
 "Wm. N. Byers, of Denver, Colorado, shows that the 
 insects hatch in immense quantities in the valleys of the 
 three forks of the Missouri river and along the Yellow- 
 stone, and that, when fledged, they move on from there 
 in a southeast direction at about the rate of 10 miles per 
 day. The swarms of 1867 were traced, as he states, from 
 their hatching grounds in West Dakota and Montana, 
 along the east flank of the Rocky Mountains, into the 
 valleys and plains of the Black Hills, and between them 
 and the main Rocky Mountain range.* 
 
 In all this immense stretch of country, as is well known, 
 there are extensive tracts of barren, almost desert land, 
 while other tracts for hundreds of miles bear only a scanty 
 vegetation ; the short buffalo grass of the more fertile 
 prairies giving way, now to a more luxurious vegetation 
 along the water courses, now to the sage bush and a few 
 cacti. Another physical peculiarity is found in the fact 
 that not only does the spring on these immense plains some- 
 times open as early, even away up into British America, as 
 it does in Chicago, or exceptionally even in St. Louis, but 
 the vegetation is often dried and actually burned out 
 
 * SeeHayden's Geol. and Geogr. Survey of the Territories, 187J, pp. 282-3. 
 
Home, and Range East of Mountains. T^7 
 
 in the early part of July, so that not a green thing is to be 
 found. Our Rocky Mountain Locust, therefore, hatching 
 out in untold myriads in the hot plains, five or six thou- 
 sand feet above the sea level, will often i^erish in immense 
 numbers if the scant vegetation of its native home dries 
 up before it acquires wings; but if the season is propitious 
 and the insect becomes fledged before its food supply is 
 exhausted, the newly acquired wings prove its salvation. 
 It may also become periodically so prodigiously multiplied 
 in its native breeding places that, even in favorable 
 seasons, everything green is devoured by the time it be- 
 comes winged. 
 
 In either case, prompted by that most exigent law of 
 hunger — spurred on for very life — it rises in immense 
 clouds in the air to seek for fresh pastures where it may 
 stay its ravenous appetite. Borne along by the prevailing 
 winds that sweep over these immense treeless plains from 
 the northwest, often at the rate of fifty or sixty miles an 
 hour, the darkening locust clouds are soon carried into the 
 more moist and fertile country to the southeast, where with 
 sharpened appetites, they fall upon the crops like a plague 
 and a blight. Many of the more feeble or of the more 
 recently fledged perish, no doubt, on the way ; but the 
 main army succeeds, with favorable wind, in bridging over 
 the parched country which offers no nourishment. The 
 hotter and drier the season, and the greater the extent of 
 the drouth, the earlier will they be prompted to migrate, 
 and the farther will they push on to the east and south. 
 
 My late friend, Benj. D. Walsh, was of the opinion that 
 the swarms which pour down upon the Mississippi Valley 
 come from the mountain regions of Colorado. My own 
 belief, first announced in 1874, that they originate in the 
 Northwest, has been very strongly confirmed by subsequent 
 events ; and however much some of the Western States 
 
58 Tlte Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 may suffer from swarms from the mountain regions fartlier 
 south, it seems quite certain that the extensive and disas- 
 trous swarms which come late in summer and fall, and 
 which reach as far east as Missouri, have their origin in the 
 vast plains regions of the Northwest lying east of the 
 mountains, in Montana, Dakota, and the Saskatchawan 
 and Eed River countries of British America.* Some wri- 
 ters find it difficult to believe that the insect can fly over 
 such immense distances, and they believe that the swarms 
 originate (as Mr. S. H. Scudder, of Cambridge, puts it), 
 " in the immediate vicinity of the regions which they 
 devastate." 
 
 Such language is not very definite, since much of the 
 country devastated must be in the immediate vicinity of 
 the hot, dry plains and plateaus in which I believe the 
 species is more particularly at home. The swarms that 
 occasionally, during summer, devastate the country in 
 which the species is not indigenous, must necessarily be 
 the progeny of insects developed at no great distance 
 from the sections they invade, whether they come from 
 Minnesota southward, from Colorado eastward, or from 
 Texas northward ; and I endeavored to draw the distinc- 
 tion in 1874 between these summer swarms and the more 
 disastrous fall swarms. On this point the Minnesota 
 commission remarks (Special Rep. to Gov. Davis, p. 25) : 
 
 It is plain that locusts hatched in Colorado and regions to the 
 south and southwest of Minnesota, acquire wings in lime to allow 
 them to reach tbis State in the former half of June. This is shown 
 by the time when the invasion occurred in 1873, and by the immense 
 fliglits of locusts -which passed over Nebraska and Dakota to the 
 nol'thward in .Tune, 1875. It seems to be a common impression that 
 the locusts which have invaded Minnesota at other times were 
 hatclud in Montana, Northwestern Dakota and British America, 
 and this is rendered probable by what few facts we know, and by 
 
 * Theo;iginof the swarms that devastate the Pacific slope is probably in 
 the similar high plains regions of Washington, Idaho and Oregon. 
 
Home, and Range East of Mountains. 59 
 
 the time and direction from whicli they came. These attacks are 
 all represented as coming from the west, north or northwest, and 
 reached the Red River Settlement in the last week of July, 1818, 
 the Upper Mississippi about the same time in 1856, the western line 
 of the* State in the former half of July, 1864, and on July 15th, 
 1874. In the last three cases the invasions did not reach their 
 farthest limit until a considerable portion of the crops had been 
 harvested. 
 
 If Mr. Scudder means that the hordes that in August 
 and September occasionally overrun the whole territorj' 
 which I have indicated as outside the insect's natural 
 habitat, originate within or upon the borders of that terri- 
 tory — the country south of the 44th parallel and east of 
 the 100th meridian — then the facts are entirely against his 
 supposition. The late swarms of 1874 and 1876, are known 
 to have traveled from five hundred to six hundred miles 
 after having reached the more thickly settled country. 
 Late appearance and late egg-laying imply late hatching, 
 which, in the main, must needs have taken place in north- 
 erly or sub-alpine regions. The invasion of the northern 
 regions of Minnesota, Dakota, Montana and Manitoba, 
 from the still farther northwest, also makes it clear that 
 the insects come from beyond. The theory of short 
 flights and development, in the immediate vicinity of the 
 country devastated, will not ansAver for the late disastrous 
 and general irruptions like those of 1866, 1874 and 1876 ; 
 and in discussing this question the difference between 
 these irruptions and the earlier, more frequent and less 
 disastrous ones, should always be borne in mind. 
 
 The species, as defined in this work, and as it swoops 
 down from the mountain region, does not, as some claim, 
 occur every year in Missouri, Texas, Kansas, or any of the 
 country to which I have indicated it is not indigenous. 
 It occurs there only as the dwindling progeny of the 
 swarms from the west or northwest, and never becomes 
 acclimated. I have traveled through Iowa, and from 
 
60 Tlie BocJcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 Omaha to Denver, collecting plants and capturing insects 
 along the route on every occasion ; I have traveled exten- 
 sively in Kansas, Indian Territory and Texas, always 
 collecting ; I have been overwhelmed in the latter State 
 with swarms of locusts while in front of an engine, and 
 yet, among all the locusts collected, I have never found 
 the genuine spretus, except as it came from the west or 
 northwest, or hatched from eggs laid by those which had 
 thence come. It can not be found there any more than it 
 can be found in the western counties of Missouri, except 
 as the progeny of invading swarms. There is no instance 
 on record of the species, when hatching out in any of this 
 country, remaining long enough to lay eggs, even suppos- 
 ing it capable of domg so in such circumstances. We 
 find it multiplying continuously west and north of the 
 boundary indicated ; pushing annually, in detachments, 
 eastward from the mountains to the west, and southeast- 
 ward from the country to the northwest; but only at long 
 intervals does it sweep down in countless myriads and in 
 extended and devastating swarms from the extreme north- 
 west. Just beyond the confines of the country in which 
 it permanently multiplies, it follows that it will more 
 often do injury than farther east and south ; it will also 
 hold its own longer, but sooner or later it vanishes from 
 the country beyond those confines. It either vacates the 
 territoiy on the wing, or is destroyed by influences adverse 
 to its well-being. 
 
 In placing these confines along the 44th parallel and the 
 100th meridian, I think I have given the utmost southern 
 and eastern limits. It is even doubtful whether the spe- 
 cies permanently multiplies in much of the country for 
 some degrees north and west of the territory thus indi- 
 cated. Prof. Thomas indicates the eastern boundary as 
 along the 103rd meridian, while Mr. G. M. Dawson, in the 
 
Home, and Range East of Mountains. 61 
 
 pamphlet already referred to, says that " north of the 
 49th parallel, the whole area of the third or highest 
 prairie-plateau, and probably mnch of the second, are 
 congenial breeding places, and here the locusts are always 
 in greater or less numbers." Regarding the western 
 boundary, nothing struck Prof. Thomas* as more singular 
 than the few specimens of spretxis collected west of the 
 mountain range by the Hayden Geological Survey, from 
 which he infers that the line of the survey was along the 
 southwest border of its district. Mr. J. D. Putnam, of 
 Davenport, Iowa, who spent July, August and September 
 of IS 75, in Utah, also informs me that he did not meet 
 with a single specimen. 
 
 That the native home of the species is what naturalists 
 understand as sub-alpine, is rendered pretty certain, also, 
 by the fact of its abounding to such an extent in British 
 America, and of its breeding in the higher mountain ele- 
 vations, even up to the perennial snows. In fact, so high 
 up does it breed that it often hatches so late m the season 
 as to be overtaken by the cold of the succeeding winter 
 before acquiring growth, when of course it perishes with- 
 out begetting. The truly alpine country can not, therefore, 
 be its native home ; and those found breeding at such a 
 height must be the progeny of others which flew from the 
 plains, either east or west of the mountains. Physical 
 barriers on the high mountain summits put a limit to the 
 insect's extension and propagation, just as they do in the 
 Mississippi Valley. 
 
 * Preface to his Report upon the Collections of Orthoptera made in Nevada, 
 Utah, California, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, in 1871, 1872, 1873, and 
 1874, by Hayden'e Geol. Surv. of the Terr. (187(i). 
 
62 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 IT CAN NOT PERMANENTLY THRIVE OR PERPETUATE ITSELF 
 IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 The comparatively sudden change from the attenuated 
 and dry atmosphere of five to eight thousand feet or more 
 above the sea level, to the more humid and dense atmos- 
 phere of one thousand feet above that level, does not 
 agree with the species. The first generation hatched in this 
 low country is more or less unhealthy, and those that attain 
 maturity do not breed, but quit the country. At least such 
 is the case in the whole of the Mississippi Valley proper. 
 As we go west or northwest and approach nearer and 
 nearer the insect's native home, the power to propagate 
 itself and become localized, becomes, of course, gi-eater 
 and greater, until at last we rea*.- i the country where it is 
 found perpetually. Thus in the western parts of Kansas 
 and Nebraska, in parts of Colorado and Minnesota, in fact, 
 in all the region indicated by the pink color in Plate I, the 
 progeny from the mountain swarms may multiply to the 
 second or even third generation, and wing their way in 
 more local and feeble bevies to the country east and south. 
 Yet eventually they vanish from that region and perish, 
 unless fortunate enough to be carried back by favorable 
 winds to the higher country where they flourish. There 
 is nothing more certain than that the insect is not autoch- 
 thonous in Texas, West Arkansas, Indian Territory, West 
 Missouri, Kansas, Western Iowa, Nebraska, or even Min- 
 nesota ; and whenever it overruns any of those States it 
 sooner or later abandons them. The same also is true of 
 parts of Colorado, Montana, Dakota, and even of Manitoba. 
 
 THE CONDITIONS WHICH PREVENT THE PERMANENT SETTLE- 
 MENT OF THE SPECIES IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 
 
 The conditions which determine the geographical limits 
 in which a species can exist, are often complex, and it is 
 
Home, and Range East of Mountains. 63 
 
 not generally easy to say precisely what they are. Assum- 
 ing that I have correctly placed the native home of the spe- 
 cies in the higher, treeless and scarcely habitable plains of 
 the Rocky Mountain region of the Northwest, and that it 
 is sub-alpine, we may perhaps find, in addition to the com- 
 paratively sudden change from an attenuated and dry to 
 a more dense and humid atmosphere, another tangible 
 barrier to its permanent multiplication in the more fertile 
 country to the southeast, in the lengthened summer season. 
 As with annual plants, so with insects (like this locust) 
 which produce but one generation annually and whose 
 active existence is bounded by the spring and autumn 
 frosts — the duration of active life is proportioned to the 
 length of the growing season. Hatching late and develop- 
 ing quickly in its native haunts, our Rocky Mountain 
 Locust when born within our borders (and the same 
 will apply in degree to all the country where it is not 
 autochthonous), is in the condition of an annual north- 
 ern plant sown in more southern climes ; and just as this 
 attains precocious maturity and deteriorates for want of 
 autumn's ripening influences, so our locust must in such 
 circumstances deteriorate. If those which acquired wings 
 in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, etc., early in June of 1875, had 
 staid long enough to lay eggs, supposing them capable of 
 doing so, these eggs would inevitably have hatched prema- 
 turely, and the progeny must in consequence have perished. 
 There would have been no time for a second generation to 
 mature : such a second generation would have been cut ofi" 
 by winter's frosts without perpetuating. 
 
 Being a firm believer in change by modification in what 
 we call species, and that climatic conditions play a most 
 important part in causing this change, and that they act 
 more rapidly with lower animals than most evolutionists 
 grant, the idea has been very strong in my mind that the 
 
6'4 The Rocky Ifountain Locust. 
 
 species might become profoundly modified in the direction 
 of Atlanis in the course of two or three generations in 
 the country to the southeast, and that in this way and 
 through miscegenation with our native species, its extinc- 
 tion from our territory might also be accounted for. The 
 same possibility has also been suggested by Prof. Thomas — 
 a professed anti-Darwinian — in an elaborate paper pub- 
 lished in October, 1875, in the Chicago Inter-Ocean^ and, 
 as bearing on this point, I will state that the specimens 
 which hatched in and left the western counties of Missouri 
 in 1875, were, on an average, somewhat darker and smaller 
 than their parents. But after fully digesting all the facts, 
 I am convinced that these influences play a very unimpor- 
 tant part, if any; and that they can not be considered as 
 factors in the problem. All that could get away from the 
 regions of Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska 
 ravaged in 1875, did so ; and if I may judge from expe- 
 rience in Missouri, those that could not, perished, so that 
 in the fall not a remnant of the army was left. 
 
 But whatever the causes, the fact of debility, disease 
 and deterioration in, as well as migration from, the more 
 fertile southeastern country which the species occasionally 
 devastates, stands forth clearly and can not be gainsaid. 
 The following observations from careful observers may 
 be placed on record here : 
 
 Mr. Riley is of the opinion that the grasshoppera run out in a 
 few generations after they leave their native sandy and gravelly 
 soil. My experiments so far as they go, verify that opinion. For 
 several years I have caught grasshoppers during early summer that 
 came fresh from the direction of the mountains, and by attaching 
 their legs with fine silk threads to a small spring balance, found 
 that their physical strength was from twenty-five to fifty per cent, 
 greater than that of grasshoppers treated the same way that were 
 hatched in Nebraska or in States further eastward or northward. 
 The same result was reached by caging them, and ascertaining how 
 lonir they would live without food, and also bj^ vivisection. In some 
 places, also, the eggs that were laid in different years since 1864 did 
 
Home^ and Range East of Mountains. Qo 
 
 not hatch out. The changes from extreme wet to dry, and from 
 cold to hot weather, or some other unknown causes, seem to sap 
 their constitutional vigor. Were it not for this, long ere now these 
 grasshoppers would, from their enormous numbers, have desolated 
 tlie whole country as far east as the Atlantic. — [Prof. Sam'l Aughey, 
 of the University of Nebraska, in the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal. 
 
 I have observed hundreds of winged locusts fall to the ground 
 during flight, either already dead or soon dying. These upon exam- 
 ination have generally proved to contain no parasites, and I judge 
 that their death was in consequence of impaired strength, this 
 second generation raised in an unnatural climate not equaling in 
 vitality the first generation, and succumbing to the fatigue conse- 
 quent upon extended flight. — [Prof. F. H. Snow, of Kansas State 
 University, in Observer of Nature. 
 
 IT WILL NEVER DO SERIOUS HARM EAST OF THE NINETY- 
 FOURTH MERIDIAN. 
 
 A full month before a single specimen of the Rocky- 
 Mountain Locust reached Missouri in 1874, I predicted 
 that it would come into the western counties too late to do 
 any very serious damage, and that it would not reach 
 beyond a given line. To the many anxious correspondents 
 who, fearing that the State was to be overrun, as Kansas 
 was being overrun, wrote for my opinion and advice, I 
 replied : " Judging of the future by the past, the farmers 
 of Missouri, east of the extreme western tier of counties, 
 need fear nothing from locust invasions. They may jjlant 
 their fall grain without hesitation, and console themselves 
 with the reflection that they are secure from the unwel- 
 come visitants which occasionally make their way into the 
 counties mentioned, especially into those of the northwest 
 corner of the State. The same holds true of the farmers 
 of Illinois and of all the country east of a line drawn at a 
 rough estimate, along longitude 17° west from Washing- 
 ton." 
 
 This prediction was fully borne out by subsequent events, 
 and I have ever insisted that east of the line indicated 
 there is no danger from this locust. 
 
 5 
 
The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 But, it will be asked, " Upon what do you base this con- 
 clusion, and what security have we, that at some future 
 time the country east of the line you have indicated may 
 not be ravaged by these plagues from the mountains ? " I 
 answer, that during the whole history of the species as I 
 have attempted to trace it in the chronological account 
 already given, the insect never has done any damage east 
 of the Ime indicated, and there is no reason to suppose 
 that it ever will do so for the future. There must of course 
 be some limit to its flight, as no one would be foolish 
 enough to argue that it could, in one season, fly to Eng- 
 land or France, or even to the Atlantic ocean ; and as its 
 flight is by law limited to one season — for the term of life 
 allotted to it is bounded by the spring and autumn frosts — 
 so its power of flight is limited. And as the historical 
 record proves that it never has done any damage east of 
 the line indicated, it is but logical to infer that it never 
 will, so long as the present conditions of climate and the 
 present configuration of the continent endure. It is an 
 interesting fact that whether on the Gulf of Mexico or in 
 British America the eastern limit-line is api3roximately the 
 same. 
 
 " But why," it will again be asked, "will not the young 
 from the eggs laid along the eastern limit you have indi- 
 cated, hatch and spread further to the eastward ? " Here, 
 again, historical record serves us, and there are, in addi- 
 tion, certain physical facts, which help to answer the 
 question. In Chapter V it is shown, that the young 
 insects do not reach, on an average, ten miles east of any 
 point where they hatch, and that upon acquiring wings 
 they fly in the main northwestwardly. 
 
 East of color-line indicated in Plate I, they did not reach 
 in a general way, either in 18T4 or 1876, and beyond that 
 line I do not believe they will ever do any damage. Not 
 
Home, and Range East of Mountains. 67 
 
 that they may not to some extent spread beyond that line, 
 in years to come, or that the young, hatching from invad- 
 ing swarms may not exceptionally push beyond it ; for I 
 have numerous records to show that the insects have 
 occurred as far as the western point of Lake Superior, and 
 that they have even reached the Mississippi in parts of 
 Iowa : but in all such instances they appeared in scatter- 
 ing numbers only, and did no material damage. They 
 were the last remnants of the mighty armies from the 
 mountains, moving and blowing about, diseased, parasit- 
 ized, intestate and wasting away. 
 
 It is an interesting fact, as shown by the distribution of 
 timber in the United States, that this limit-line follows, in 
 the main, the separation of the timber from the plains and 
 prairie regions, or, more correctly speaking, the line which 
 separates that vast region between the Mississippi and the 
 mountains in which the timber averages not more than 
 six or seven out of every one hundred acres, and that in 
 which it averages twenty-five or thirty out of every one 
 hundred. In this fact we also get another probable ex- 
 planation of the eastern limit of injury by spretus. 
 
 Well is it for the people of the Mississippi Valley that 
 this insect can not go on multiplying indefinitely in their 
 fertile fields ! Else, did it go on multiplying and thriving 
 as the Colorado Potato-beetle has done, this whole valley 
 would soon become a desert waste. 
 
 It will be a source of satisfaction to the farmers east of 
 the line indicated (however little it may be to those on 
 the westward side,) to feel assured against any future inva- 
 sion by, or any serious injury from, an army of insects so 
 prodigiously numerous as actually to obscure the light of 
 the sun, and so ruinously destructive as to devour almost 
 every green thing that grows ! 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 NATURAL HISTORY AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 
 
 HOW THE EGGS ARE LAID. 
 
 The female, when about to lay her eggs, forces a hole 
 in the ground by means of the two pairs of horny valves 
 which open and shut at the tip of her abdomen, and 
 which, from their peculiar structure, are admirably fitted 
 
 for the pur- 
 pose. (See 
 Fig. 7, where 
 5, c, show the 
 structure of 
 one of each 
 of the upper 
 and lower 
 valves). With 
 -^5^ the valves 
 ^f- closed she 
 pushes the 
 
 Kooky Mountain LocrsT:— o, a, a, female In different po- " 
 
 sitions, ovipositing; 6. egg-pod extracted from ground, wlthtlie wpOUnd and 
 
 end broken open ; c, a few eggs lying loose on tiie ground; d, e, ° ' 
 
 sliow the earth partially removed, to Illustrate an egg-mass 'hy o serieS 
 
 already in place, and one being placed; /, shows where such a ^ 
 
 mass has been covered up. q£ muSCular 
 
 efforts and the continued opening and shutting of the 
 valves, she drills a hole until in a few minutes (the time 
 varying with the nature of the soil) nearly the whole abdo- 
 men is buried. The abdomen stretches to its utmost for this 
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
70 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Rocky Mountain 
 LocTJST — An»l characters 
 of female, showing horny 
 valves. 
 
 purpose, especially at the middle, and the hole is generally 
 a little curved, and always more or less oblique (Fig. 6, d). 
 Now with hind legs hoisted straight above the back, and 
 the shanks hugging more or less closely the thighs, she 
 commences ovipositing. If we could manage to watch a 
 female during the arduous work of ovi- 
 positing, we should find that, when the 
 hole is once drilled, there commences 
 to exude at the dorsal end of the abdo- 
 men, from a pair of sponge-like exser- 
 tile organs (Fig. 8, A) that are normally 
 retracted and hidden beneath the super- 
 anal plate (Fig. 8, t), near the cerci, a 
 frothy, mucous matter, which fills up the bottom of the 
 hole. Then with the two pairs of valves brought close to- 
 gether, an egg would be seen to slide down the oviduct {j ) 
 along the ventral end of the abdomen, 
 and guided by a little finger-like style* 
 {g) pass in between the horny valves 
 (which are admirably constructed, not 
 only for drilling, but for holding and con- 
 ducting the egg to its appropriate place) 
 and issue at their tips amid the mucous 
 fluid already spoken of. Then follows a 
 period of convulsions, during which more 
 mucous material is elaborated, until the 
 whole end of the body is bathed in it, 
 when another egg passes down and is 
 placed in position. These alternate processes continue 
 until the full complement of eggs are in place, the number 
 ranging from 20 to 35, but averaging about 28. The mu- 
 cous matter binds all the eggs in a mass, and when the 
 
 OviposiTion OF 
 Rocky Mountain 
 Locust 
 
 "" This 18 a simple process or extension of the sternite, and may be known as 
 the cgL'Suide. or gvbernaculum ovi. 
 
Natural History and Transformations. 11 
 
 last is laid, the mother devotes some time to filling up the 
 somewhat narrower neck of the burrow with a compact 
 and cellulose mass of the same material, which, though 
 light and easily penetrated, is more or less impervious to 
 water, and forms a very excellent protection (Fig. 9, d). 
 
 PHILOSOPHY OP THB EGG-MASS. 
 
 To the casual observer, the eggs of our locust appear 
 to be thrust indiscriminately into the hole made for their 
 reception. A more careful study of the egg-mass or Qgg- 
 jDod will show, however, that the female took great pains 
 to arrange them, not only so as to economize as much space 
 as possible consistent with the form of each Q^g, but so as 
 to best facilitate the escape of the young locust ; for if, 
 from whatever cause, the upper eggs should fail to hatch, 
 or should hatch later than the lower ones, the former would 
 offer an impediment to the exit of the young in their endeav- 
 ors to escape from these last, were there no provision against 
 [Fig. 9] such a possibil- 
 
 ity. The eggs 
 are,indeed,most 
 carefully placed 
 side by side in 
 four rows, each 
 row generally 
 containing sev- 
 en. They ob- 
 lique a little 
 larged. crosswisc of the 
 
 cylinder (Fig. 9, a). The posterior or narrow end, which 
 issues first from the oviduct, is thickened, and generally 
 shows two pale rings around the darker tip (Fig. 10, a). 
 This is pushed close against the bottom of the burrow, 
 which, being cylindrical, does not permit the outer or two 
 
 Egg JfAPs OF Rocky Motntain Locust:— a, from the 
 Biilp. within hurrow ; 6, from beneath ; c. from above— eu- 
 
72 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 side rows to be pushed quite so far down as the two inner 
 rows, and for the very same reason the upper or head ends of 
 the outer rows are necessarily bent to the same extent over 
 the inner rows, the eggs when laid being somewhat soft 
 and plastic. There is, consequently, an irregular channel 
 along the top of the mass (Fig. 9, c), which is filled only 
 with the same frothy matter which surrounds each egg, 
 which matter occupies all the other space in the burrow 
 not occupied by the eggs. The whole plan is seen at once 
 by a reference to the accompanying figure, which represents, 
 enlarged, a side view of the mass within the burrow, (a), 
 and a bottom {Ti) and top (c) view of the same, with the 
 earth which adheres to it removed. 
 
 DOES THE FEMALE FORM MORE THAN ONE EGG-MASS ? 
 
 Whether the female of our Rocky Mountain Locust lays 
 her full supply of eggs at once, and in one and the same 
 hole, or whether she forms several pods at different 
 periods, are questions often asked, but which have never 
 been fully and definitely answered in entomological works. 
 It is the rule with insects, particularly with the large 
 number of injurious species, belonging to the Lepidoptera, 
 that the eggs in the ovaries develop almost simultaneously, 
 and that when oviposition once commences, it is continued 
 uninterruptedly until the supply of eggs is exhausted. 
 Yet there are many notable exceptions to the rule among 
 injurious species, as in the cases of the common Plum 
 Curculio and the Colorado Potato-beetle, which oviposit 
 at stated or irregular iiitervals during several weeks, or 
 even months. The Rocky Mountain Locust belongs to 
 this last category, and the most casual examination of the 
 ovaries in a female, taken in the act of ovipositing, will 
 show that besides the batch of fully formed eggs then and 
 there being laid, there are other sets, diminishing in size. 
 
Natural History and Transformations. 73 
 
 which are to be laid at future periods. This, I repeat, can 
 be determined by any one who will take the trouble to 
 carefully examine a few females when laying. But just 
 how often, or how many eggs each one lays, is more diffi- 
 cult to determine. With spretus I have been able to 
 make comparatively few experiments, but on three differ- 
 ent occasions I obtained two pods from single females, 
 laid at intervals of 18, 21 and 26 days respectively. I 
 have, however, made extended experiments with its close 
 congeners, femur -nihrum and Atlanis, and in two cases, 
 with the former, have obtained four different pods from one 
 female, the laying covering periods of 58 and 62 days, and 
 the total number of eggs laid being 96 in the one case 
 and 110 in the other. A number of both species laid 
 three times, but most of them — owing, perhaps, to their 
 being confined — laid but twice. They couple with the 
 male in the intervals of oviposition, and I have no doubt 
 but that, as in most other species of animals, there is great 
 difference in the degree of individual prolificacy. We may, 
 therefore, feel tolerably confident that the Rocky Mountain 
 Locust will sometimes form as many as four egg-pods. 
 
 The time required for drilling the hole and completing 
 the pod will vary according to the season and the temper- 
 ature. During the latter part of October, or early in No- 
 vember last year, when there was frost at night and the 
 insects did not rouse from their chilled inactivity until 9 
 o'clock A. M., the females scarcely had time to complete the 
 process during the four or five warmer hours of the day ; 
 but with a higher temperature not more than from two 
 to three hours would be required. 
 
 HOW THK YOUNG LOCUST ESCAPES FROM THE EGG. 
 
 Carefully examined, the egg-shell is found to consist of 
 two layers. The outer layer which is thin, semi-opaque, 
 
74 
 
 The Rocky Moicntain Locust. 
 
 and gives the pale, cream-yellow color, is seen by aid of a- 
 high magnifying power to be densely, minutely and shal- 
 
 lowly pitted ; or, to 
 
 [Fig. 10.] 
 
 use still more exact 
 language, the whole 
 surface is netted with 
 minute and more or 
 less irregular, hexag- 
 onal ridges (Fig 10, 
 a, h). It is a mere 
 covering of excreted 
 i^isy#--.-_iili matter, similar in na- 
 iM Ji^i' ;/ t^^6 to the 
 
 ture to 
 1/ matter, 
 scribed, 
 the 
 
 mucous 
 
 already de- 
 
 which binds 
 
 eggs together. 
 
 Egg OF RocKT MoiJNTAra' Locrsx:— a, show- 
 
 The inner layer (or 
 chorion) is thicker, of 
 a deeper yellow, and 
 perfectly smooth. It, 
 also, is translucent, so 
 
 ing sculpture of outer shell; 6. the same, very fl-inf qq +Tio VidtnliirxT 
 hishlv magnified , c. the inner shell, just before ^"•^^' ^^ ^^^ natCUmg 
 hatching ; d. e, points where it ruptures period approaches, the 
 
 form and members of the embryon may be distinctly dis- 
 cerned through it. The outer covering is easily ruptured, 
 and is rendered all the more fragile by freezing ; but the 
 inner covering is so tough that a very strong pressure 
 between one's thumb and finger is required to burst it. 
 How, then, will the embryon, which fills it so comj^actly 
 that there is scarcely room for motion, succeed in escaping 
 from such a prison ? The rigid shell of the bird's e^^ is 
 easily cracked by the beak of its tenant ; the hatching 
 caterpillar, curled within its egg-shell, has room enough 
 to move its jaws and eat its way out ; the egg-coverings 
 
Natural History and Transformations . 75 
 
 of many insects are so delicate and frail that the mere 
 swelling of the embryon affords means of escape ; those 
 of others are so constructed that a door flies open, or a lid 
 lifts by a spring, whenever pressure is brought to bear : 
 in some, two halves open, as in the shell of a muscle ; 
 whilst in a host of others the embryon is furnished with a 
 special structure, called the egg-burster,* the office of 
 which is to cut or rupture the shell, and thus afford means 
 of escape. But our young locust is deprived of all such 
 contrivances, and must have another mode of exit from 
 its tough and sub-elastic prison. Nature accomplishes the 
 same end in many different ways. She is rich in contriv- 
 ances. The same warmth and moisture which promote 
 the development of the living embryon, also weaken the 
 inanimate shell, by a process analogous to decomposition, 
 and by a general expansion consequent ujDon the swelling 
 of the embryon within. Thus, the eggs when about to 
 hatch are much more plump and somewhat larger and 
 more transparent than they were when laid. At last, by 
 the muscular efforts of the nascent locust, and the swell- 
 ing of its several parts, especially about the head and 
 mouth, the shell gives way, generally splitting along the 
 anterior ventral part. The whole process may, in fact, be 
 likened to the germination of a hard-covered seed, when 
 planted in moist ground, and, precisely as in this latter 
 case, there is, in some loose soils, a certain heaving of the 
 ground, from the united swelling of the locust eggs. All 
 the eggs in a given mass burst very nearly at one and the 
 same time, and in that event the lowermost individuals 
 await the escape of those in front of them, which first 
 push their way out through the neck of the burrow (Fig. 
 9, d,) provided by the parent. 
 
 * I have elsewhere (Mo. Ent. Kep. 9, p 127.) called this the Ruptor ovl. 
 
76 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 They all escape, one after the other, through one small 
 hole, which in the field is scarcely noticeable. Such is the 
 usual mode of hatching ; but when the young from the 
 lower eggs hatch first, or when the upper eggs perish and 
 leave the lower ones sound — as is not unfrequently the 
 case — the exit is nevertheless easily made along the chan- 
 nel already described (Fig. 9, c). 
 
 Where there is the heat requisite to insure development, 
 but insufficient moisture to weaken the egg-shell, it is not 
 improbable that another agency comes into play to aid the 
 escape of the young. 
 
 Every one who has been troubled by it must have 
 noticed that the shanks (tibice) of our locust, as of all the 
 members of its family, are armed with spines. On the four 
 anterior legs, these spines are inside the shank ; on the 
 long posterior legs, outside. The spines of the hind 
 shanks are strongest, and the terminal ones on all legs 
 stronger than the rest. There can be no doubt that these 
 spines serve to give a firm hold to the insect in walking 
 or jumping ; but they may have first served a more im- 
 portant prenatal purpose by partially performing the office 
 of egg-burster. 
 
 When fully formed, the embryon is seen to lie within its 
 shell, as at Fig. 10, c. The antennae curve over the face 
 and between the jaws, which are early developed, and 
 which, with their sharp, black teeth, reach down to the 
 breast. The legs are folded up on the breast, the strong 
 terminal hooks on the hind shanks reaching toward the 
 mesosternum, or middle-breast. Ordinarily all these parts 
 are sheathed in the delicate pellicle {amnion) presently to 
 be described. But just in proportion as the hatching is 
 retarded for want of moisture, after the embryon is once 
 fully developed, in that proportion the jaws and spines 
 harden ; and it would seem that by the muscular contrac- 
 
Natural History and Transformations. 11 
 
 tions and expansions of hatching, which bring the ventral 
 parts with great pressure against the shell, there might be 
 slight friction of the horny points which would wear 
 through the delicate amnion and facilitate the rujDture of 
 the shell at the points marked d and e in Fig. 1 0. 
 
 After this is ruptured, the nascent larva, by a series of 
 undulating movements soon works itself entirely out of the 
 egg-shell and makes its way to the light in the manner 
 already described. Once fully escaped from the soil, it 
 rests for a short time from its exertions. Its task is by no 
 means complete : before it can feed or move with alacrity 
 it must molt a pellicle* which completely encases every 
 part of the body. This it does in the course of three or 
 four minutes, or even less, by a continuance of the same 
 contracting and expanding movements which freed it from 
 the earth, and which now burst the skin on the back of 
 the head. The body is then gradually worked from its 
 delicate covering until the last of the hind legs is free and 
 the exuvium remains, generally near the point where the 
 animal issued from the ground, as a little, white, crumpled 
 pellet. Pale and colorless at first, the full-born insect in 
 the course of half an hour assumes its dark-gray coloring. 
 
 From this account of the hatching process, we can read- 
 ily understand why the female in ovipositing prefers com- 
 pact or hard soil to that which is loose. The harder and 
 less yielding the walls of the burrow, the easier will the 
 young locust crowd its way out. 
 
 Though the covering which envelops the little animal 
 when fii'st it issues from the egg is quite delicate, it never- 
 theless in the struggles of birth undoubtedly affords pro- 
 tection from the burrow, and it is an interesting fact that 
 
 * This pellicle (the amnion) is common to most insects. As a rule it is left 
 with the chorion, but by most Orthoptera and Nearoptera it is shed after leaving 
 the egg. 
 
78 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 while it is shed within a few minutes of the time when the 
 animal reaches the free air, it is seldom shed if, from one 
 cause or other, there is failure to escape from the soil, even 
 though the young locust may be struggling for days to 
 effect an escape. 
 
 While yet enveloped in this pellicle, the animal possesses 
 great forcing and pushing power, and if the soil be not too 
 compact, will frequently force a direct passage through the 
 same to the surface, as indicated at the dotted lines, Fig. 
 9, e. But if the soil is at all compressed it can make little 
 or no headway, except through the appropriate channel 
 (c?). While crowding its way out, the antennae and four 
 front legs are held in much the same position as within the 
 egg, the hind legs being generally stretched. But the 
 members bend in every conceivable way, and where sev- 
 eral ai*e endeavoring to work through any particular 
 passage, the amount of squeezmg and crowding they will 
 endure is something remarkable. Yet if by chance the 
 protecting pellicle is worked off before issuing from the 
 ground, the animal loses all power of further forcing its 
 way out. The instinctive tendency to push upwards is 
 also remarkable. In glass tubes, in which I have had the 
 eggs hatching in order to watch the young, these last 
 would always turn their heads and push toward the bot- 
 tom whenever the tubes were turned mouth downward ; 
 while in tin boxes where the eggs were placed at different 
 depths in the ground, the young never descended, even 
 when they were unable to ascend on account of the com- 
 pactness of the soil above. 
 
 GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATIONS. 
 
 The little locust when first hatched is quite pale, but 
 soon becomes mottled with gray and brown. Except in 
 having a shorter, narrower prothorax, sloping roof-fashion 
 
Natural History and Transformations. Y9 
 
 to a meridian ridge, and in lacking wings, the young 
 locust scarcely diifers in structure from its parent ; and 
 the perfect, winged form is gradually assumed thi'ough a 
 series of five molts, during the first four of which the 
 wing-pads become larger, [Fig. ii.] 
 
 and during the last, from 
 the pupa (Fig. 11, c), to 
 the perfect state, the tho. 
 rax becomes flattened, the 
 wings are acquired, and the 
 insect ceases to grow and 
 is ready to procreate. The 
 
 . KocKY MorNTAiN Locust :-«, a, newly 
 
 tim.e required from hatching hatched larv* ; 6, fuU-growa larva ; c, pupa. 
 
 till the wings are obtained, differs very much according to 
 latitude and season, but averages from six weeks to two 
 months. 
 
 In order to illustrate the interesting process of molting 
 we will trace an individual through the last molt — from 
 the pupa to the winged insect — as it is the most difficult, 
 and, on account of the larger size of the animal, most 
 easily watched. The other molts are very similar, except 
 that the wing-pads increase but moderately in size with 
 each. When about to acquire wings the pupa crawls up 
 some post, weed, grass-stalk, or other object, and clutches 
 such object securely with the hind feet, which are dra^vn 
 up under the body. In doing so the favorite position is 
 with the head downward, though this is by no means essen- 
 tial. Remaining motionless in this position for several 
 hours, with antennae drawn down over the face, and the 
 whole aspect betokening helplessness, the thorax, especially 
 between the wing-pads, is noticed to swell. Presently the 
 skin along this swollen portion splits right along the mid- 
 dle of the head and thorax, starting by a transverse-curved 
 suture between the eyes, and ending at the base of the 
 
80 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 abdcmen. Let us now imagine that we are watching one 
 from the moment of this splitting, and when it presents 
 the appearance of Fig. 12, a. As soon as the skin is split, 
 the soft and white fore-body and head swell and gradually 
 
 L Fig. 12. ] 
 
 Rocky Mountain Locust :— Process of acquiring wings • a, pupa with sljin just 
 split on the back , 6^ the imago extruding ; c. the imago nearly out ; d, the imago with 
 wings expanded. 
 
 extrude more and more by a series of muscular contor- 
 tions ; the new head slowly emerges from the old skin, 
 which, with its empty eyes, is worked back beneath ; the 
 new feelers and legs are being drawn from their casings, 
 and the future wings from their sheaths. At the end of 
 six or seven minutes our locust — no longer pupa and not 
 yet imago — looks as in Fig. 12, J, the four front pupa-legs 
 being generally detached and the insect hanging by the 
 hooks of the hind feet, which were anchored while yet it 
 had that command over them which it has now lost. The 
 receding skin is transparent and loosened, especially from 
 the extremities. In six or seven minutes more of arduous 
 labor — of swelling and contracting — with an occasional 
 brief respite, the antennae and the four front legs are freed, 
 and the fulled and crimped wings extricated. The soft 
 front legs rapidly stiffen, and, holding to its support as 
 
Natural History and Transformations . 81 
 
 well as may be with these, the nascent locust employs 
 whatever muscular force it possesses in drawing out the 
 end of the abdomen, and its long hind legs (Fig. 12, c). 
 This in a few more minutes is accomplished, and with gait 
 as unsteady as that of a new-dropped colt, it turns round 
 and clambers up the side of the shrunken, cast-oflf skin, 
 and there rests while the wings expand and every part of 
 the body hardens and gains strength — the crooked limbs 
 straightening and the wings unfolding and expanding like 
 the petals of some pale flower. The front wings are at 
 first rolled longitudinally to a point, and as they expand 
 and unroll, the hind wings, which are tucked and gathered 
 along the veins, at first curl over them. In ten or fifteen 
 minutes from the time of extrication these wings are fully 
 expanded and hang down like dampened rags (Fig. 12, d). 
 From this point on, the broad hind wings begin to fold up 
 like fans beneath the narrower front ones, and 
 in another ten minutes they have assumed the 
 normal attitude of rest. Meanwhile the pale 
 colors which always belong to the insect while 
 molting have been gradually giving way to the 
 natural tints, and at this stage our new-fledged 
 locust presents an aspect fresh and bright (Fig. 
 13). If now we examine the cast-off" skin we 
 shall find every part entire, with the exception 
 of the rupture which originally took place 
 on the back ; and it would puzzle one who 
 had not witnessed the operation to divine how 
 
 . Rocky Motjn- 
 
 the now stm hmd shanks of the mature insect tain locust: - 
 
 The imago with 
 
 had been extricated from the bent skeleton *'^ p**^"^ perfect, 
 left behind. They are in fact drawn over the bent 
 knee-joint, so that during the process they have been 
 bent double throughout their length. They were as 
 supple at the time as an oil-soaked string, and for some 
 6 
 
82 TJie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 time after extrication they show the effects of this severe 
 bending by their curved appearance. 
 
 The molting, from the bursting of the pupa-skin to the 
 full adjustment of the wings and straightening of the legs 
 of the perfect insect, occupies less than three-quarters of 
 an hour, and sometimes but half an hour. It takes place 
 most frequently during the warmer hours of the morning, 
 and within an hour after the wings are once in position 
 the parts have become sufficiently dry and stiffened to en- 
 able the insect to move about with ease, and in another 
 hour, with appetite sharpened by long fast, it joins its 
 voracious comrades and tries its new jaws. The molting 
 period, especially the last, is a very critical one, and dur- 
 ing the helplessness that belongs to it the unfortunate 
 locust falls a j^rey to many enemies which otherwise would 
 not molest it, and not infrequently to the voracity of the 
 more active individuals of its own species. 
 
 As already stated, there are five molts exclusive of that 
 which takes place upon leaving the egg. In the first stage 
 — that following the ^^^ — the wing-pads are not visible ; 
 in the second stage they are likewise scarcely noticeable ; 
 in thie third (after the second molt) they project but little 
 beyond the meso- and meta-thorax, differ but little in size, 
 and are directed downwards, lying separately close to the 
 body ; in the fourth stage (after third molt) they are di- 
 rected upward, the hind covering and hiding more or less 
 the front pair, and the joints bearing them retreating more 
 beneath the prothorax ; in the fifth stage (after fourth 
 molt) they are enlarged as seen in the pupa, and with the 
 fifth molt the sixth or perfect stage is attained. 
 
 European authors differ as to whether there are three, 
 four or five molts in the European migratory species ; * 
 
 • See Kocppen, " Ueber die Heuschrecken In Suedrussland." 1805. p? '£l-Z. 
 
Natural History and Transformations. 83 
 
 but I have watched spretus from the eg^ to the imago, 
 and thousands of mounted and alcoholic specimens of all 
 ages show the stages enumerated. The transition from 
 the second to the third, however, is often imperceptible, 
 and it is not at all improbable that, as is the case with 
 many other insects, the number of molts will vary accord- 
 ing to the amount of nutrition and rapidity of develop- 
 ment. The joints of the antennoe increase with each molt, 
 from 13 in the newly hatched to 24 or 25 in the full-fledged 
 insect. 
 
 FLIGHT AT NIGHT. 
 
 It is the very general experience throughout the coun- 
 try subject to invasion, that the winged insects rise, as 
 soon as the sun begins to dissipate the dew, and that they 
 come down again toward evening, as the sun's rays lose 
 their power. It is a question, therefore, whether they ever 
 continue flying during the night, and one which future 
 investigation will doubtless settle. I am of the opinion 
 that during the warmer mid-summer and early fall season, 
 when the insects are departing from their northwest hatch- 
 ing grounds, they must not infrequently continue flight 
 from necessity ; for the descent of a swarm borne along 
 in a strong current of air, at an altitude of over a mile 
 above the earth, will depend more on some change in 
 strength or direction of the current than on any other 
 condition of the atmosphere. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 HABITS, AND POWER FOR INJURY. 
 
 ITS FLIGHT AND RAVAGES. 
 
 The voracity of these insects can hardly be imagined by 
 those who have not witnessed them, in solid phalanx, 
 falling upon a cornfield and converting, in a few hours, 
 the green and promising acres into a desolate stretch of 
 bare, spindling stalks and stubs. Covering each hill by 
 hundreds ; scrambling from row to row like a lot of young 
 famished pigs let out to their trough ; insignificant indi- 
 vidually, but mighty collectively — they sweep clean a field 
 quicker than would a whole herd of hungry steers. Im- 
 agine hundreds of square miles covered with such a 
 ravenous horde, and one can get some realization of the 
 picture presented in many parts of the country west of 
 the Mississippi during years of locust invasion. 
 
 Their flight may be likened to an immense snow storm, 
 extending from the ground to a height at which our visual 
 organs perceive them only as minute, darting scintilla- 
 tions — leaving the imagination to picture them mdefinite 
 distances beyond. " When on the highest peaks of the 
 snowy range, fourteen or fifteen thousand feet above the 
 sea, I have seen them filling the air as much higher as 
 they could be distinguished with a good field glass."* It 
 is a vast cloud of animated specks, glittering against the 
 
 * Wm. N. Byers, A7n. Entomology f , I, p. 94. 
 (83) 
 
86 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 sun. On the horizon they often appear as a dust tornado, 
 riding upon the wind like an ominous hail storm, eddying 
 and whirling about like the wild dead leaves in an autumn 
 
 [Fig. 14.] 
 
 A SwABM OF Locusts falling upon and devouring a Wheat-field. 
 
 Storm, and finally sweeping up to and past you, with a 
 power that is irresistible. They move mainly with the 
 wind, and when there is no wind they whirl about in the 
 air like sAvarming bees. If a passing swarm suddenly 
 meets with a change in the atmosphere, " such as the 
 approach of a thunder-storm or gale of wind, they come 
 down precipitately, seeming to fold their wings, and fall 
 
Habits, and Power for Injury. 87 
 
 by the force of gravity, thousands being killed by the fall, 
 if it is upon stone or other hard surface."* In alighting, 
 they circle in myriads about you, beating against every- 
 thing animate or inanimate ; driving into open doors and 
 windows ; heaping about your feet and around your 
 buildings ; their jaws constantly at work biting and test- 
 ing all things in seeking what they can devour. In the 
 midst of the incessant buzz and noise which such a flight 
 produces ; in face of the unavoidable destruction every- 
 where going on, one is bewildered and awed at the 
 collective power of the ravaging host, which calls to mind 
 so forcibly the plagues of Egypt. 
 
 The noise their myriad jaws make when engaged in their 
 work of destruction, can be realized by any one who has 
 " fought " a prairie fire, or heard the flames passing along 
 before a brisk wind : the low crackling and rasping — 
 the general effect of the two sounds, is very much the 
 same. Southey, in his Thalaba,f most graphically pictures 
 this noise produced by the flight and approach of locusts : 
 
 " Onward they come, a dark, continuous cloud 
 Of congregated myriads numberless. 
 The rushing of whose wings was as tlie eound 
 Of abroad river, headlong in its course 
 Plunged from a mountain summit, or the roar 
 Of a wild ocean in the autumn storm, 
 Shattering its billows on a shore of rocks! " 
 
 Nothing, however, can surpass the prophet Joel's ac- 
 count of the appearance and ravages of these insects. 
 Omitting the figurative parts, it is accurate and graphic 
 beyond measure : 
 
 " A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds 
 and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the 
 mountains ; a great people and a strong ; there hath not 
 
 * Wm. N. Byers, Hayden's Geol. Surv., 1870, p. 282. 
 + I., 169. 
 
88 Tlit BocTcy Mountaiit Locust, 
 
 been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even 
 to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth 
 before them ; and behind them a flame burneth ; the 
 land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind 
 them a desolate wilderness ; yea, and nothing shall escape 
 them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of 
 horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise 
 of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like 
 the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as 
 a strong people set in battle array. Before their face the 
 people shall be much pained ' all faces shall gather black- 
 ness. They shall run like mighty men ; they shall climb 
 the wall like men of war ; and they shall march every 
 one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. 
 * * * They shall run to and fro in the city ; they 
 shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the 
 houses ; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief." 
 Those who suffered from and witnessed the vast army 
 that cast a blight over so large a portion of our Western 
 country in 1874 and 1876 ; or who passed by rail, during 
 the better part of two days, through a perfect storm of 
 these insects, which frequently impeded or stopj^ed the 
 train by their crushed bodies reducing the traction — will 
 concede that Joel's picture is not overdrawn, and that, 
 though written over 2,500 years ago, it might have been 
 inspired from many parts of North America in the years 
 namedo 
 
 THE MIGEATOKY INSTINCT AND GREAT DESTRUCTIVE POWER 
 BELONG TO BUT ONE SPECIES W^EST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Being anxious to ascertain whether the injuries reported 
 in the different parts of the country between the Missis- 
 sippi and the Rocky Mountains were all caused by one 
 species, or whether others joined their forces in devastat- 
 
Habits, and Power for Injury. 89 
 
 ing the country, I have taken some pains to procure speci- 
 mens from as many different localities as possible. After 
 examining such from every State and Territory in the 
 country mentioned, fi*om British America to the Gulf, it is 
 obvious that in every instance it is the same species that 
 proves such a scourge. As yet, we know nothing very defi- 
 nite about the species that has in the past done so much 
 damage in California and other parts of the country west 
 of the mountain range. Some suppose it to be the (Edip- 
 oda atrox, Scudder ; but as spretus has been taken in 
 Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and Nevada, this species, or a race 
 of it, will doubtless be found to be the culprit. 
 
 Only occasionally do specimens of some of the more 
 common species accompany the migratory one. Thus the 
 larger and common species, the Two-striped Locust {Cal 
 optenus bivittatus. Say) and the Differential Locust (C. 
 diJferentialiSf Walk.) which are incapable of migrating to 
 any great distance, and which are common in the Missis- 
 sippi Valley, have occasionally been caught with the spre- 
 tus, and sent to me with it. Already existing in the 
 country invaded by the Rocky Mountain species, they 
 were simply gathered up with it. 
 
 Yet, while no other species possesses such wonderful 
 migratory habits, several become so enormously multiplied 
 during certain years in their native homes as to commit 
 very serious injury to vegetation. Some of them are also 
 capable of extended flight. Of these, I shall speak more 
 fully further on. 
 
 POOD PLANTS. 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust may be said to be almost 
 omnivorous. Scarcely anything comes amiss to the raven- 
 ous hosts when famished. They will feed upon the dry 
 bark of trees or the dry lint of seasoned fence planks ; and 
 
90 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 upon dry leaves, paper, cotton and woolen fabrics. They 
 have been seen literally covering the backs of sheep^ 
 eating the wool ; and whenever one of their own kind is 
 weak or disabled from whatsoever cause, they go for him 
 or her with cannibalistic ferocity, and soon finish the 
 struggling and kicking unfortunate. They do not refuse 
 even dead animals, but have been seen feasting on dead 
 bats and birds. Few things, therefore, come amiss to them 
 Yet where food is abundant they are fastidious and much 
 prefer acid, bitter or peppery food to that which is sweet. 
 The following resume of my notes and observations may 
 prove interesting ; Vegetables and cereals are their main 
 stay. Turnips, rutabagas, carrots, cabbage, kohlrabi 
 and radishes are all devoured with avidity ; beets and 
 potatoes with less relish, though frequently nothing but 
 a few stalk-stubs of the latter are left, and sometimes the 
 tubers in the ground do not escape. Onions they are 
 very partial to, seldom leaving anything but the outer 
 rind. Of leguminous plants the pods are preferred to the 
 leaves, which are often passed by. Cucurbitaceous plants 
 also suifer most in the fruit. In the matter of tobacco 
 their tastes are cultivated, and they seem to relish an old 
 quid or an old cigar more than the green leaf. Tomatoes 
 and sweet potatoes are not touched so long as other food 
 is accessible. 
 
 Of cereals, corn is their favorite ; if young and tender^ 
 everything is devoured to the ground ; if older and drier, 
 the stalks are mostly left ; the silk is, however, the first 
 part to go. All other cereals are to their taste, except 
 sorghum and broom corn, which are often left untouched. 
 The bearded varieties of wheat have been less damaged 
 in Minnesota, by the winged insects, than the smooth 
 varieties. They are fond of buckwheat and flax, but 
 seldom touch castor beans except to feed upon the flower. 
 
Habits, and Poioer for Injury. 91 
 
 Next to vegetables and cereals, they relish the leaves of 
 fruit trees; they strip apple and sweet cherry trees, leaving 
 nothing but the fruit hanging on the bare twigs. The 
 leaves of the peach are generally left untouched, but the 
 flesh of the unripe fruit is eaten to the stone. Pear trees, 
 as Prof. Gale informs me, suffered less than any other kind 
 of orchard tree at the Experimental farm of the Agricul- 
 tural College at Manhattan, Kansas. The tender bark of 
 twig and branch and trunk of all these trees is gnawed 
 and girdled, and these girdled trees present a sad picture 
 as one passes through the ravaged country during the 
 subsequent winter. Sour cherry, apricot and plum trees 
 are less affected by them, while ripe fruit is seldom 
 touched. 
 
 Of berries, strawberries and blackberries are devoured 
 where raspberries are frequently unmolested. Flowermg 
 shrubs very generally suffer, and they are particularly fond 
 of Rose and Lilac. Of herbaceous plants, Helianthus, 
 Amarantus and Xanthium are eaten with especial avidity. 
 Grape vines suffer more from the girdling of the fruit- 
 stems than from defoliation. Forest and shade trees suffer 
 in different degrees, and some, when young, are not infre- 
 quently killed outright. 
 
 In 1874, Honey Locust, Red Cedar, Box Elder, Osage 
 Orange, Elm and Oak, were either untouched or but little 
 injured, while the following trees were preferred in the 
 order of their naming : Ash, Willow, Cottonwood, Balm 
 of Gilead, Silver-leaved and Lombardy Poplars, Black 
 Ash, Black Locust, Black Walnut, Hickory, Ailanthus, 
 Maple, Sumach and Evergreens. In every case they show 
 a marked preference for plants that are unhealthy or 
 wilted. In 1876 they in some cases showed a partiality 
 for some plants that were passed by on other occasions, 
 and their tastes are quite eccentric. 
 
92 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 It is generally supi^osed that evergreens escape the 
 ravages of the young insects, but whei*ever these are abun- 
 dant, hemlock, arbor vitse, the diflferent pines, and espe- 
 cially the Norway spruce, for which they show a predi- 
 lection, are stripped. The red cedar more often escapes- 
 Wild prairie grass, especially that which is low, is eaten 
 down less closely than other grasses, and oats more often 
 escape than other cereals. Blue grass is sometimes killed 
 out, but more generally not, and young corn is eaten down 
 so often and so deeply into the ground that it is frequently 
 destroyed. Potatoes are not killed by being eaten down, 
 and generally make a crop after the insects leave, without 
 replanting. This is especially the case when they are plant- 
 ed deep, and where the vines as they grow are at first kept 
 covered with earth, which they can be with impunity. The 
 blossoms and stems of peas are left after the leaves are 
 stripped, and parsnips sometimes remain untouched. All 
 other vegetables are swept off. Of wild plants. Milkweed, 
 {Asclepias) and Dogbane {Aj^ocymim) are little to their 
 taste, and are taken only when all else is destroyed ; an 
 occasional Salvia trichostemmoides and Vernonia novce- 
 boracensis will also be left in the general ruin ; but the 
 plant of all others that enjoys immunity from the omniv- 
 orous creatures is the Amarantus Blitum, a low, creeping, 
 glossy-leaved herb, lately introduced into Missouri. I 
 found this plant unmolested even where the insects were 
 so hard pushed for food that they were feeding on each 
 other and on dead leaves, the bark of trees, lint of fences, 
 etc., and where they were so thick hiding amid its leaves 
 that fifty to a hundred occurred to the square foot. The 
 immunity of the plant is the more remarkable since the 
 other species of the genus do not escape. 
 
 The dislike of locusts for Leguminous plants is very 
 general, and, as Mr. G. M. Dawson, of Montreal, Canada, 
 
Habits^ and Power for Injury. 93 
 
 first suggested, there is probably a connection between 
 this dislike and the large number of such plants found on 
 the western plains. 
 
 In 1874, in Missouri, plants belonging to the Nightshade 
 family {Solanacem) generally escaped their ravages ; the 
 tops of potatoes and tomatoes were not eaten. Sweet 
 potatoes, parsnips, castor-beans, butter-beans, carrots, 
 celery and the tops of beets were not molested. They did 
 no damage to broom-corn or sorghum. Tobacco was in 
 most cases not eaten, and if eaten, it is reported as killing 
 the locusts. Prairie grass, wild weeds and the leaves of 
 most forest trees were left uninjured. Plants growing in 
 wet places, or in the shade of trees, hills, etc., mostly 
 escaped injury. Finally, when pushed to extremities, 
 there is only one plant — the little Amarantus above men- 
 tioned — that I have found that they will not touch. 
 
 INJURY TO FRUIT AND FRUIT TREES. 
 
 It is doubtful if grain-growers and stock-raisers suffer as 
 much in the end as fruit-growers, from locust injuries. 
 The injury is at first less felt by these, but in many in- 
 stances it is more lasting and serious. Most trees survive 
 one or two defoliations, but in many cases no leaves are 
 permitted to grow for weeks, just at the season when they 
 are most needed. This was especially the case in 1875 
 with low shrubs, such as gooseberries and currants, in 
 which the insects were fond of roosting. Where not ex- 
 cessively numerous, heart-cherries were preferred over 
 others, and the insects would pass through a strawberry 
 bed and only clean out the weeds. A great many trees 
 were killed outright, and it was often found necessary to 
 cut down the grape-vines. Trees not killed were often 
 badly barked and lost many limbs, and except where pro- 
 tected by ditches, no orchards yielded fruit. Many trees 
 
94 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 put forth a few secondary blossoms after the insects left, 
 and a few small apples were noticed on such in autumn. 
 
 TIME OF APPEARANCE OF INVADING SWARMS. 
 
 In endeavoring to deduce general conclusions respect- 
 ing the time of year that the 1874 swarms reached different 
 parts of the country, great difficulty was experienced in 
 sifting those accounts which referred to the progeny of 
 the 1873 invasion, and those which hatched within the 
 insect's native range, and came from the extreme North- 
 west. The same was true of the fresh 1876 swarms, and 
 those which hatched in Minnesota. Yet we shall find, as 
 a rule, that the insects which hatch outside of what is 
 designated further on as their native habitat — *. e., in 
 Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and the larger part of Nebraska, 
 Kansas and Texas — acquire wings and leave before the 
 fresh swarms from the mountain region appear. In the 
 more northerly of the States, as in Minnesota, the insects 
 hatched on the ground in ordinary seasons acquire wings 
 in June, and earlier in proportion as we go south, until 
 in Texas they become fledged in April. The time of appear- 
 ance of the new swarms is in inverse ratio : i. e., earlier 
 in the more northern, later in the more southern States- 
 Thus, while on the confines of the insect's native habitat, 
 it is almost if not quite impossible to distinguish between 
 the old and the " new comers, in respect to the time of 
 their acquiring wings, the difference in this respect be- 
 comes greater the farther south and east we go. In 1874, 
 swarms appeared during June in Southern Dakota; during 
 July in Colorado, Nebraska and Minnesota ; during the 
 latter part of this month in Iowa and Western Kansas. 
 During August they came into Southeast Kansas and Mis- 
 souri ; and by the middle of October they reached Dallas, 
 in Texas. In 1876 they came later. 
 
Habits, and Power for Injury. 95 
 
 One noticeable feature of the invasions is the greater 
 rapidity with which the insects spread in the earlier part 
 of the season, while in fullest vigor, and the reduction in 
 the average rate of progress the farther east and south 
 they extend. The length of their stay depends much upon 
 circumstances. Early in the summer, when they first 
 begin to pour down on the more fertile country, they sel- 
 dom remain more than two or three days ; whereas, later 
 in the season, they stay much longer. In speaking of the 
 advent and departure of these insects, I use relative lan- 
 guage only. The first comers, when — after having devoured 
 everything palatable — they take wing away, almost always 
 leave a scattering rear-guard behind, and are generally fol- 
 lowed by new swarms ; and a country once visited presents 
 for weeks the spectacle of the insects gradually rising in 
 the air between the hours of 9 or 10 a. m. and 3 p. m., and 
 being carried away by the wind, while others are constantly 
 dropping. 
 
 RATE AT WHICH THE INVADING SWARMS SPREAD. 
 
 This may be illustrated by the history of the 1876 in- 
 vasion. Leaving Montana about the middle of July, the 
 insects reached far into Texas by the end of September, 
 thus extending about 1,500 miles in 75 days, or an average 
 of about 20 miles per day. But over a large part of this 
 territory, viz., portions of Wyoming, most of Dakota and 
 Nebraska, Western Minnesota, Northwestern Iowa, North- 
 western Kansas, and Northeastern Colorado — they appeared 
 almost simultaneously, or during the last few days of July 
 and the first few days of August; and this, I think, indicates 
 that they were at that time swept down at a very much 
 higher rate by the northwesterly winds from Montana and 
 British America. After that time the extension south was 
 tolerably rapid, but the extension east was more and more 
 
96 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 slow. They occupied nearly a month reaching from North- 
 western Iowa to the southwestern limit in the same State, 
 and their eastward progress on the confines of the limit- 
 line already indicated was still more gradual as they went 
 south. All of which indicates that they fly most power- 
 fully when leaving the higher altitudes of the Northwest, 
 and most persistently during the first week or so after be- 
 coming fledged, while the females are not yet prompted to 
 descend for oviposition. This is also the period when they 
 are passing over the vast plains and the sparsely settled 
 and uncultivated portion of the country, in which there is, 
 perhaps, least inducement for the ravenous host to halt. 
 
 As flight is not consecutive day after day, but often im- 
 peded by bad weather, and as it is not continuously in one 
 direction, the average rate is not more than twenty miles 
 a day. It is also most variable, and at times reaches a 
 maximum of between two hundred and three hundred 
 miles daily. 
 
 DIRECTION OP FLIGHT OF INVADING SWARMS. 
 
 The wind is sometimes quite changeable during the 
 period of invasion, and we find the insects, at one time or 
 another, traveling in nearly all possible directions, except 
 due west. Yet the direction of the invading hosts has 
 been, and I believe always will be, conspicuously toward 
 the south and southeast. The exceptions are only sufiicient 
 to prove the rule. 
 
 WHERH THE EGGS ARE LAID. 
 
 The eggs may be laid in almost any kind of soil, but by 
 preference they are laid in bare, sandy places, especially 
 on high, dry ground, which is tolerably compact and not 
 loose. It is generally stated that they are not laid in 
 meadows and pastures, and that hard road-tracks are pr©^ 
 ferred ; in truth, however, meadows and pastures, where 
 
Habits, and Poioer for Injury. 97 
 
 the grass is closely grazed, are much used for ovii^ositing 
 by the female, while on well-traveled roads she seldom 
 gets time to fulfill the act without being disturbed. Thus 
 a well-traveled road may present the appearance of being 
 perfectly honey-combed with holes, when an examination 
 will show that most of them are unfinished, and contain 
 no eggs ; whereas a field covered with grass-stubble may 
 show no signs of such holes and yet abound with eggs. 
 Furthermore, the insects are more readily noticed at their 
 work along roads and roadsides than in fields, a fact which 
 has also had something to do in forming the popular im- 
 pression. Newly plowed land is not liked ; it presents too 
 loose a surface ; but newly broken sward is often filled with 
 eggs. Moist or wet ground is generally avoided for the 
 purpose under consideration. During the operation the 
 female is very intent on her work, and may be gently ap- 
 proached without becoming alarmed, though when sud- 
 denly disturbed she makes great efibrts to get away, and 
 extricates her abdomen in the course of a few seconds, the 
 time depending on the depth reached. 
 
 TIME OF HATCHING. 
 
 The date at which the eggs hatch varies with the 
 earliness or lateness of the spring, and is moreover quite 
 irregular, some hatching in the same locality when the 
 first-hatched locusts are getting wings. As a general rule, 
 however, the bulk of the eggs hatch out in the different 
 latitudes about as follows : 
 
 In Texas, from the middle to the last of March. 
 
 In the southern portions of Missouri and Kansas, about 
 the second week in April. 
 
 In the northern parts of Missouri and Kansas and the 
 southern sections of Iowa and Nebraska, the latter part 
 of April and first of May. 
 
 In 3Iinnesota and Dakota, the usual time of hatching 
 
98 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 ranges from early in May in the southern portions to the 
 third week in the northern extremity. 
 
 In Montana and Manitoba, from the middle of May to 
 the first of June. 
 
 Id short, the bulk of the insects hatch, in ordinary 
 seasons, about the middle of March in latitude 35'', and 
 continue to hatch most numerously about four days later 
 with each degree of latitude north, until along the forty- 
 ninth parallel the same scenes are repeated that occurred 
 in Southern Texas seven or eight weeks before. 
 
 HABITS OF THE YOUNG OR UNFLEDGED LOCUSTS. 
 
 The habits of the young insects as they occur in the 
 country south of the forty-fourth parallel and east of the 
 one hundredth meridian, are as follows : Although possessed 
 of remarkably active powers from the moment they leave 
 the egg, yet so long as provision suffices for them on their 
 hatching-grounds the young remain almost stationary and 
 create but little apprehension. As soon, however, as the 
 supply of food in these situations is exhausted, they 
 commence to migrate, frequently in a body a mile wide, 
 devouring, as they advance, all the grass, grain and garden- 
 truck in their path. The migrating propensity is not 
 developed until after the first molt, and often not till after 
 the second or third. Up to that time they are content to 
 huddle in warm places, and live, for the most part, on 
 weeds, and especially on the common Dog-fennel or May- 
 weed {Maruta) where it is present. 
 
 The young locusts display gregarious instincts from the 
 start, and congregate in immense numbers in warm and 
 sunny places. They thus often blacken the sides of houses 
 or the sides of hills. They remain thus huddled together 
 during cold, damp weather. When not traveling, and when 
 food is abundant, or during bad, rainy weather, they are 
 
HaMis, and Power for Injury. 99 
 
 fond of congregating on fences, buildings, trees, or anything 
 removed from the moist ground. They also prefer to get 
 into such positions to undergo their different molts. In 
 fields they collect at night or during cold, damp weather, 
 under any rubbish that may be at hand, and may be enticed 
 under straw, hay, etc., scattered on the ground. Old prairie 
 grass affords good shelter, and where a wheat-field is 
 surrounded with unburnt prairie, they will gather for shelter 
 along the borders of this last. 
 
 Their power for injury increases with their growth. At 
 first devouring the vegetation in particular fields and 
 patches in the vicinity of their birth-places, they gradually 
 widen the area of their devastation, until at last, if very 
 numerous, they devour every green thing over extensive 
 districts. Whenever they have thus devastated a country 
 they are forced to feed upon one another, and perish in 
 immense numbers from debility and starvation. Whenever 
 timber is accessible they collect in it, and after cleaning out 
 the underbrush, feed upon the dead leaves and bark. A 
 few succeed in climbing up into the rougher-barked trees, 
 where they feed upon the foliage, and it is amusing to see 
 with what avidity the famished individuals below scramble 
 for any fallen leaf that the more fortunate mounted ones 
 may chance to sever. This increase in destructiveness 
 continues until the bulk of the locusts have undergone 
 their larval molts and attained the pupa state. The pupa, 
 being brighter colored, with more orange than the larva, 
 the insects now look, as they congregate, like swarms of 
 bees. From this time on they begin to decrease in numbers, 
 though retaining their ravenous propensities. They die 
 rapidly from disease and from the attacks of natural enemies, 
 while a large number fall a prey, while in the helpless condi- 
 tion of molting, to the cannibalistic proclivities of their own 
 kind. Those that acquire wings rise in the air during 
 
100 Tlie Rocky 3Iountain Locust. 
 
 the warmer parts of the day, and wend their way as far 
 as the wind will permit toward their native home in the 
 Northwest. They mostly carry with them the germs of 
 disease or are parasitized, and wherever they settle do 
 comparatively little damage. 
 
 DIRECTIONS IN WHICH THE YOUNG LOCUSTS TRAVEL. 
 
 The young insects move, as a rule, during the warmer 
 hours of the day only, feeding, if hungry, by the way, but 
 generally marching in a given direction until toward 
 evening. They travel in schools or armies, in no particular 
 direction, but purely in search of food — the same school 
 one day often pursuing a different course from that 
 pursued the day previous. On this point the experience 
 of 1875 is conclusive, though the bulk of the testimony as 
 to their actions, when hatching out in the States to the 
 north and west, is to the effect that the prevailing direction 
 taken is south or southeast, while in Southern Texas it is 
 just opposite, or north. A person traveling along a road 
 may often see one army marching in one direction to the 
 left and another in the opposite direction to the right. 
 
 RATE AT WHICH THE YOUNG TRAVEL. 
 
 When about half grown they seldom move at a greater 
 rate than three yards a minute, even when at their greatest 
 speed over a tolerably smooth and level road, and not 
 halting to feed. They walk three-fourths this distance and 
 hop the rest. Two consecutive hops are seldom taken, and 
 any individual one may be run down and fatigued by 
 obliging it to hoj) ten or twelve times without a rest. 
 
 THEY REACH BUT A FEW MILES EAST OF WHERE THEY 
 
 HATCH. 
 
 At the rate at which they travel, as just described, they 
 could not extend many miles, even if they continued to 
 
Habits, and Poicer for Injury. 101 
 
 travel in one direction from the time of hatching until 
 maturity. They travel, on an average, not more than six 
 hours per day ; and their unfledged existence terminates 
 in from six to eight, say seven, weeks. It is very easy to 
 calculate from these facts that if they continued in one 
 direction from the time they hatch until they acquire 
 wings, they could not extend thirty miles. In reality 
 however, they do not travel every day, and where food 
 is abundant they scarcely travel at all. Moreover, as just 
 shown, they do not commence traveling till after the fii'st 
 
 [Fig. 15.1 
 
 AMSr.ICAN ACKIDIUM. 
 
 molt, and they do not go continually in a particularly 
 eastern direction, but in all directions. 
 
 We have already seen that the winged insects take a north- 
 west direction, and do not fly to the east. Yet in 1875 a few 
 stragglers were carried as far as the centre of Missouri by 
 being swept into the Missouri river and drifted on logs and 
 chips during the annual rise of that river in July. These 
 soon become lost to view; for most of them are intestate 
 or diseased, and if they should lay eggs the young hatch 
 early in the fall and perish at the approach of winter. 
 
 NOT LED BY '* KINGS " OR " QUEENS." 
 
 The idea that the young hoppers were led in their 
 marches by so-called " kings " or " queens " has been, 
 
102 
 
 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 at different times, very prevalent. It is, however, quite 
 unfounded. Certain large locusts belonging to the genera 
 Acridmm and (Edipoda^ hibernate in the full grown, 
 winged state, and not in the o^^^ state, like the Rocky Moun- 
 tain species. Always with us, their presence is simply 
 more manifest in the spring, when the face of the earth is 
 bare. Hopping with the others or falling into ditches 
 with them, they give rise to this false notion, and it is an 
 interesting fact, as showing how the same 'circumstances at 
 times give rise to similar erroneous ideas in widely separate 
 parts of the world, that the same idea prevails in parts 
 of Europe and Asia. ' 
 
 The two species which are most often thus found with 
 the young locusts and supposed from their size and con- 
 spicuousness to be guides, are the American Acridium 
 {^Acridium Americanum, Drury, Fig. 15), and the Coral- 
 winged Lo- 
 cust ( CEdipo- 
 da phcenicop>- 
 tera, Germ., 
 Fig. 16). The 
 former is our 
 largest and 
 most elegant 
 locust, the 
 
 prevailing color being dark brown, with a broad, pale 
 yellowish line along the middle of the back when the 
 wings are closed. The rest of the body is marked with 
 deep brown, verging to black, with pale reddish-brown, 
 and with whitish- or greenish-yellow ; the front wings 
 being prettily mottled, the hind wings very faintly green- 
 ish with brown veins, and the hind shanks generally coral- 
 red with black-tipped, white spines. The species is quite 
 variable in color, size and marks, and several of the varie- 
 
 COBAL- WINGED LOCTJST. 
 
Habits, and Power for Injury. 103 
 
 ties have been described as distinct species. The Coral- 
 winged Locust is also an elegant species, the colors being 
 brown-black, brick-yellow inclining to brown, and a still 
 paler, whitish-gray ; the hind wings varying from vermil- 
 lion-red to pink, with more or less yellowish -green, and 
 with a broad external dusky border, broadest and palest 
 at tip. The hin4 shanks are yellow with black-tipped 
 spines. This species is also quite variable, and at least half 
 a dozen of its slight variations have been seized upon 
 from which to fabricate new species. 
 
 DIRECTION^ TAKEX BY THE DEPARTING SWARMS. 
 
 "While, as we have just seen, the principal direction of 
 the invading swarms is south and southeast, the principal 
 direction of the departing swarms is north and northwest. 
 This is emphatically the case with those that rise from the 
 lower Missouri Valley country. In other words, there is 
 a return migration toward the home of the immediate 
 parents. That the insects instinctively seek this direction 
 there can, I think, be no doubt ; for while they depend in 
 great part on the wind for propulsion, and without its aid 
 would be unable to migrate to very great distances, I have 
 a large number of reports to show that whenever the wind 
 blew from the north or northwest, the locusts came down 
 and awaited a change to a more favorable direction. They 
 begin to rise when the dew has evaporated, and descend 
 again toward evening. A swarm passing over a country yet 
 infested with the mature insects, constantly receives accre- 
 tions from these, and is, consequently, always more dense 
 in the afternoon than in the forenoon. In rising, the in- 
 sects generally face the wind, and it is doubtful if they 
 could ascend to any great height without doing so. They 
 are, I believe, good navigators, and know how to take 
 advantage of the different air currents. The rate at wliich 
 
104 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 they travel will depend on the force of the wind ; but it 
 is evident from the observations made in Dakota, where 
 their advance in 1875 was reported by telegraph, that they 
 often travel a hundred miles a day. Their minimum speed, 
 in tolerably calm weather, when the wind is scarcely felt 
 at the surface of the ground, can not be much less than 
 from eight to ten miles an hour. 
 
 In the more western and northern parts of the locust 
 region, as in Minnesota, Dakota and Colorado, the direc- 
 tion of the departing swarms will be less constant, and 
 according as they develop late, or are the progeny of 
 swarms that came from other directions than the north- 
 west, they will either be carried by the wind or will 
 instinctively leave, in other directions. 
 
 DESTINATION OF THE DEPARTING SWARMS. 
 
 That the swarms which leave the fertile country in 
 which they hatch and are not indigenous, pass by degrees 
 to the northwest, and reach into Northwestern Dakota, 
 Wyoming and Montana, the records clearly prove. That 
 they also reach far up into the northwest regions of 
 British America, the record of the flights of 1875 in 
 Chapter II (p. 42) also abundantly attests. It is also just 
 as certain that a large proportion of those which take wing 
 perish on the way from debility, the eflects of storms, 
 and more particularly from the attacks of parasites ; be- 
 cause I proved by careful dissection in 1875 that a large 
 proportion of those which came to maturity and left the 
 western counties of Missouri, carried with them the germs 
 of destruction in the shape of Tachina eggs or the larvae 
 already hatched and of various sizes. Others again were 
 infested with the scarlet mites. We may very justly con- 
 clude, therefore, that a large proportion of the insects 
 which depart from the country invaded, perish on their way 
 
Habits, and Power for Injury. 105 
 
 toward the native breeding grounds of the species, and 
 that those which do not so perish reach the Rocky Moun- 
 tain region of the Northwest, whence their parents had 
 come the previous year. They are carried back with favor- 
 ing winds, in thinned and weakened ranks, and those that 
 did not start with the germs of disease, and which escape 
 froxn other vicissitudes, doubtless succeed in reaching those 
 conditions which favor the continued perpetuation of the 
 species. They do comparatively little harm on the way, 
 and are not, by any manner of means, to be likened to the 
 more disastrous swarms from the opposite direction in the 
 fall. 
 
CHAPTER yi. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE YOUNG INSECTS IN THE 
 
 COUNTRY IN WHICH THEY HATCH, 
 
 BUT ARE NOT INDIGENOUS. 
 
 EXPERIENCE WITH THE YOUNG LOCUSTS IN THE SPRING. 
 
 Hating already spoken, in Chapter II, of the desolate 
 aspect which the ravaged country sometimes wears toward 
 the end of June, it will suffice in this connection to give a 
 few of the more interesting experiences. It is recorded in 
 Europe that few things, not even water, stop the armies of 
 the young locusts when on the march, and Dongingk 
 relates having seen them swim over the Dnjestr for a 
 stretch of one and a quarter German miles, and in layers 
 seven or eight inches thick.* We have had similar expe- 
 rience with our own species. Mr. James Hanway, of Lane, 
 Kansas, informs me that the young in 1875 crossed the 
 Pottawatomie Creek, which is about four rods wide, by 
 millions. The Big and Little Blues, tributaries of the 
 Missouri — the one about one hundred feet wide at its 
 mouth, and the other not so wide — were crossed at numer- 
 ous places by the moving armies, which would march 
 down to the water's edge, and commence jumping in, one 
 upon another, till they would pontoon the stream, so as to 
 effect a crossing. Two of these mighty armies met — one 
 moving east and the other west — opposite a farm adjoin- 
 
 * Koeppen, loc. cit . p 82 
 
 (107) 
 
loS The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 ing Mr. Z. S. Ragan, of Independence, Mo., on the river 
 bluff. Each turned its course north, and down the bluff, 
 and, coming to a perpendicular ledge of rock twenty-five 
 or thirty feet high, passed over in a sheet, apparently six 
 or seven inches thick, at the same time causing a roaring 
 noise similar to that of a cataract of water. 
 
 CONTRAST IN SUMMER AND FALL. 
 
 After the insects have left, or by the end of July in the 
 latitude of St. Louis — earlier or later as we go south or 
 north — the ravaged country begins to wear a bright and 
 promising aspect, in strong contrast with the desolation 
 of a month before. In August, the contrast becomes still 
 more gratifying, and frequently there are grown the finest 
 crops of corn, Hungarian grass, prairie meadow, buckwheat 
 and vegetables of all kinds. In September, the change 
 which three months have wrought needs to be seen to be 
 appreciated. Root crops do well, and vegetables of all 
 kinds attain immense proportions, owing to the freedom 
 from weeds, and fertility resulting from the dung and 
 bodies of the dead locusts. 
 
 NO EVIL WITHOUT SOME COMPENSATING GOOD. 
 
 Not to mention the valuable experience and the quick- 
 ening influence that are generally gained in temporary 
 adversity, there are other ways in which good may grow 
 out of the locust troubles when they are severe. The 
 chinch bugs filled the air in the spring of 1875, throughout 
 the stricken district, and many persons feared that they 
 would destroy the corn crop even if the locusts left. I 
 then argued that there was no danger of such a result, 
 and that there was every reason to expect less injury from 
 this cause than usual, and with a wet summer, which might 
 be expected, an almost total annihilation of the pest. With 
 
Injury from the Young. 109 
 
 everything eaten by the locusts, the female chinches, 
 instead of being quietly engaged, unseen, in laying eggs, 
 as they usually are in May, were flying about, seeking 
 plants on the roots of which to deposit their eggs. For 
 this reason, they were more noticeable. Once fully devel- 
 oped in the ovaries, the eggs must be laid, and the great 
 "bulk of them were necessarily laid where the young hatch- 
 ing from them were destined to perish, as the result proved; 
 for, injurious as the species had been for the two or three 
 previous years, scarcely a specimen was to be found in the 
 fall. The same will hold true of many other insect pests, 
 which are starved out in the spring by utter devastation 
 of their food-plants; and such a devastated country is 
 apt to be free from most noxious insects during the subse- 
 quent two or three years. 
 
 The unusual productiveness of the soil in the stricken 
 country was on all hands noted during the year 1875, and 
 was owing, in no small degree, to the rich coating of ma- 
 nure which the locusts left. In the form of excrement and 
 dead locusts, the bulk of that which was lost in spring was 
 left in the best condition to be carried into the soil and 
 utilized. The introduction of new seed from other States 
 was also beneficial. 
 
 Nature generally maintains her averages, and whenever 
 diminished southern winds, drouth and locusts have pre- 
 vailed, the opposite conditions are very apt to follow, and 
 give us plenteous harvests in the place of short crops. 
 
 CHANGES THAT FOLLOW THE LOCUSTS. 
 
 The invasions into a country of large numbers of animals, 
 whether men or insects, are often followed by changes in 
 the vegetation of that country. Certain strange plants 
 are said to yet mark the path through the Southern States 
 which Sherman's soldiers took in their march to the sea, 
 
110 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 and a number of plants new to the country are known to 
 have been introduced into France by the Germans during 
 the late Franco-Prussian war. So the locust incursions and 
 devastations in Kansas and Missouri were followed by 
 some curious changes. These changes consisted mostly in 
 the great prevalence of plants that in ordinary seasons are 
 scarcely noticed. The Amarantus Blitum, already spoken 
 of, spread at an unprecedented rate, and grew in great 
 luxuriance. Immediately after the locusts left, the common 
 
 [Fig 17.] 
 
 Gkben Larva of Whith-hnkd Morning Sphinx. 
 
 purslane started everywhere and usurped the place of 
 many other species. The common Nettle {Solanxmi Caro- 
 linense), and the Sand burr {S. rostratum), spread in 1875 
 to an alarming degree, and the Poke weed {Phytolacca 
 decandra), was very abundant. All kinds of grasses o-rew 
 very luxuriantly during the summer, a fact due to the wet 
 and favorable weather ; but some kinds* that are rare in 
 ordinary seasons, got the start and grew in great strength 
 and abundance. Among these none are more notable than 
 the sudden appearance very generally over the locust- 
 devastated region, of what is usually called a new grass. 
 
 * Prof. G. C. Brodhead (Trans. St. Louis Ac. Sc. Ill, p. 348,) mentions more 
 particularly, Aristida ohgostachya, in ordinal y seasons of rare occurrence around 
 Pleasant Hill, as reaching the unusual height of two feet, and being very abundant. 
 Eragrostis po(eoldes, ordlnarOy recumbent and scarcely noticed in yards and along 
 roadsides, grew in profusion and three and a half feet high, " looking like mead- 
 ows ready to be mowed." Panicum sanguinale was luxuriant enough to be cut 
 for hay. 
 
Injury from the Young. Ill 
 
 Springing up wherever the blue grass gets killed out, it 
 proves a godsend to the people, for while it is young and 
 tender, cattle like it and fatten upon it. This grass is the 
 Yilfa vagincejlora^ an annual which is common from the At- 
 lantic to the Rocky Mountains. Unnoticed during ordinary 
 seasons, the destruction of the blue grass and other plants 
 by the too close gnawing of the locusts, gives it the advan- 
 tage in the struggle for existence — an advantage which is 
 soon lost, however, as the normal relations between species 
 
 [Fig. 18.] 
 
 Black Larva of Whitk-linkd Morning Sphinx 
 
 are assumed again in a few years after the disturbing 
 influence has ceased to be operative. Indeed, since the 
 Vilfa ripens and dies early in the fall, the blue grass gains 
 ground the very first year, and afterward easily retains 
 supremacy. The wide-spread appearance of the Vilfa, 
 following the locusts, has been explained on the hypothesis 
 that the latter brought the seed from the West and passed 
 it undigested with their droppings. The fact that the seed 
 is a line long, and not particularly hard, aside from the 
 other facts in the case, renders such a hypothesis unreason- 
 able. Being an annual, the seed was scattered the previous 
 fall, and naturally starting, we may presume, about the time 
 the insects left, the species got the ascendency. 
 
 Some persons were quite alarmed at the prevalence of 
 large green and black worms, soon after the locusts left. 
 Feeding upon purslane and prevailing to an unusual 
 degree, because of the unusual prevalance of this plant, 
 
112 
 
 The RocJcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 they generally did good by keeping this weed down and 
 converting it into manure. In some few instances, how- 
 ever, they swarmed to such au extent as to devour all the 
 purslane, when they attacked grape-vines, and as Mr. Thos. 
 Wells, of Manhattan, Kansas, informs me, even cut off 
 corn when it was about a foot high. These worms were 
 the variable larvoe of the White-lined Morning Sphinx, a 
 pretty moth often seen hovering over flowers at evening. 
 Most insects that naturally feed in spring above ground on 
 
 [Fig. 19.] 
 
 White-linbd Morning Sphinx 
 
 low vegetation were killed out, and the only species 
 unaffected by the visitation were those feeding on forest 
 trees, or living in the ground or in the trunks of trees. 
 The White-lined Morning Sphinx, was just issuing from 
 the pupa, which had remained undisturbed below ground, 
 when the locusts were leaving. It found the Purslane — its 
 favorite food-plant — everywhere springing up and abun- 
 dant, and its eggs were laid without difficulty, and the 
 young larvjB did not, in any case, lack for food. As a 
 consequence they prevailed to a remarkable degree. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 NATURAL ENEMIES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN 
 LOCUST. 
 
 BIRDS AND OTHER VERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
 
 It is fortunate for man that, as in the case of most nox- 
 ious insects, this locust is not without its numerous enemies. 
 Chickens, turkeys and hogs devour immense quantities, 
 and are happy during years of locust invasion, or whenever 
 these insects abound. Praine chickens and quails devour 
 them with avidity, and even hunt for their eggs; swallows 
 and blackbirds pursue them unrelentingly ; the little snow 
 birds devour great quantities of eggs when these are 
 brought to the surface by the freezing and thawing of the 
 ground ; and the same may be said of almost all birds in- 
 habiting the Western country in winter ; for in the crops 
 of warblers, plovers, snipe and other birds killed by the 
 telegraph wires in the vicinity of Lawrence, Kansas, my 
 friend, G. F. Gaumer, found these eggs last winter. 
 
 The good offices of birds are especially noticeable in 
 spring, when the young locusts are hatching in the lower 
 Mississippi Valley. Immense flocks of the different species 
 of blackbirds, of the Lapland Longspur {^Plectrophanes 
 lapponicxis) and of plover attend the hatching grounds, 
 and clear entire fields. In 1875, Prof. F. H. Snow, of 
 Lawrence, Kansas, found the young locusts in the gizzards 
 of the Red-headed Woodpecker {Melanerpes erythro- 
 
 8 ( 113 ) 
 
114 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 cephalus). Yellow-billed Cuckoo {Coccygus Aniei'ica?ius), 
 Cat-bird {Mimus Carolmensis), Red-eyed Vireo ( Vlreo 
 olivaceus), Great-crested Flycatcher {Myiarchxis crinitus)., 
 and Crow Blackbird ( Qniscalus yemco^O'?*), species that had 
 not been noticed to feed on them before. The Shrike, or 
 Butcher-bird, impales them upon thorns and other pointed 
 substances ; and a number of other birds, as well as rep- 
 tiles — e. g., toads, frogs and snakes, and the Box-turtle — 
 feed upon them ; while the Skunk, Striped Squirrel, and 
 the Field Mouse do good work in devouring the eggs. 
 
 INVERTEBRATE ANIMALS. 
 
 The full-grown insects are not infrequently infested with 
 a long, thread-like worm, well known by the popular name 
 of " hair-worm," and erroneously supposed by many good 
 people to be animated horse hairs. Specimens are often 
 taken which are thrice as long as the locust from which 
 they come. These belong genencally to either Gordiiis or 
 Mermis. Mr. G. F. Gaumer has examined several speci- 
 mens infested with hair-worms, one of which was eighteen 
 and a half inches long. I myself have taken a specimen 
 six and a half inches long, which proves, upon comparison 
 to be our commonest species, Gordius aquaticics. But by 
 far the most effective helps in weakening the vast armies 
 of locusts are the parasitic and predaceous insects, albeit 
 their work is perhaps less noticeable and less appreciated. 
 Passing over the few — like certain species of Digger 
 Wasps, belonging to the genus Scolia^ which occasionally 
 bury a few specimens as provision for their young ; vari- 
 ous spiders ; the ferocious Asilus flies, which occasionally 
 pounce upon a specimen, and suck out its juices, and the 
 omnivorous ant, which sometimes feeds on the eggs, and 
 on the weak, sickly and disabled hoppers — I will treat more 
 particularly of those parasitic and predaceous species which 
 
Natural Enemies. 115 
 
 render effective service to man in destroying the locust. For 
 practical purposes, these may be divided into those which 
 attack the eggs and those which attack the active locust. 
 
 ANIMALS THAT ATTACK THE EGGS. 
 
 The Silky Mite {Trombidncm sericeum, Say, Fig. 20.) — 
 This is a small scarlet animal about two lines long, which 
 has for some time been known to attack 
 the eggs, and has particularly done good 
 service in the more Northern States. In 
 parts of Minnesota it has in many places 
 reduced the eggs to a powder, and the 
 ground has been alive with the little red, 
 active bodies. 
 
 The accompanying figure represents 
 one about half grown. 
 
 m, • • , ^ 1 m SILKY JUTE :— Natural 
 
 ihis mite belongs to the genus Irom- size at side. 
 biclium, only two N. A. species of which have been described 
 viz., the scabrum, Say, and the sericeum, Say. The descrip- 
 tions in both instances are very brief, and it is difficult to 
 say whether the species in question belongs to either, as 
 it varies considerably with age. It answers to sericeum, 
 however, so far as the description goes, and I prefer to 
 so refer it rather than describe it as new. The specimens 
 which I have examined have not been full grown, and the 
 pale red color which they possessed would doubtless have 
 intensified with age. Every European is familiar with the 
 Scarlet Mite {T. holoserieeum, L), which is common in the 
 soil of gardens in spring, and preys upon young larvae of 
 various descriptions. In color, silkiness and habit it greatly 
 resembles our species, and may indeed be identical. All the 
 species of this genus are highly colored, and the Trom- 
 bidium tinctorium found in Guinea and Surinam is em- 
 ployed as a dye. 
 
116 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 The eggs of the Silky Mite, which are small, spherical 
 and i^ale red, are laid in the ground in a loose mass of 
 nearly 200. They become pear-shaped before hatching, 
 and the young mites are paler than the full grown individ- 
 uals and have but six legs, the hind pair being atrophied. 
 The following accounts of its work are worthy of jjlace : 
 
 A discovery has been made of great interest. A small red bug 
 or spider, about the size of a small kernel of wheat, is fouud iu 
 great numbers, creeping into the holes to the grasshopper eggs and 
 eating the contents of the eggs voraciously. Great numbers were 
 found in the act of eating the eggs, with empty egg-shells in the 
 same nest. The extent of the little friends is not limited, but they 
 have been seen in many localities in different directions in this 
 place. Mr. J. D. Johnston, Antrim, proved conclusively that these 
 red bugs are making sure work among the eggs — S^Madelia (Minn.) 
 Times, 1874. 
 
 Last evening, when we reached "Worthington from Lake Shetek, 
 there was quite an excitement in Worthingttm, owing to the fact 
 that the citizens were generally convinced that a red parasite was 
 destroying the grasshopper eggs. I examined the matter carefully 
 myself, and became convinced that the destructi'in of the eggs iu 
 that immediate vicinity was well assured; but I determined not to 
 write you and excite any hope until a further and more complete 
 examination could be had. We therefore furnished our Bohemian 
 friends with a bottle of the eggs and their pests, and the commis- 
 sion left in high spirits. We postponed further investigation until 
 this morning, when I left and prosecuted the examination with 
 vigor. The farmers in the vicinity knew nothing of these signs of 
 deliverance until the visitors from Worthington reached them, and 
 I feel safe in saying to you that in a circle of ten miles from 
 Worthington there will scarcely be an egg left by to-morrow night. 
 I send you a bottle herewith containing the cones and the parasites. 
 We could scarcely find a cone or sack, except as they were indi- 
 cated by the parasite on the surface; and each cone, which was not 
 entirely destroyed, had from five to fifty of the red laborers at work 
 upon the eggs. We found scores of cells with no eggs left, except 
 the shells. 
 
 ************ 
 
 I stopped for fifteen minutes one and a half miles west of Wilder, 
 where Section Foreman Smith took me to that portion of his farm 
 where eggs were deposited. We could find none by general dig- 
 ging, but wherever we found, as we frequently did, the red parasite 
 on the surface, we found the cone beneath, with the parasite at 
 work consuming the eggs. * * * I am aware that two years 
 ago this parasite was found working upon the eggs at Madelia and 
 other places, but here we have the remedy almost as soon as the 
 
Natural Enemies. 117 
 
 eggs are laid, while in the former instances the pai'asite was only 
 discovered in the spring. — [Letter from Ex-Gov. Stephen Miller, 
 written from Windom, Minn., Aug. 15, 1876. 
 
 We send herewith a box of grasshopper eggs, together with the 
 '■ Silky Mite," of which so mm^h has been said. You can see a sam- 
 ple of the work they are doing. They are over the ground and in 
 it wherever eggs have been laid. They suck the eggs, leaving the 
 bare shell. We have talked with farmers from all parts of the 
 county, and they all tell the same story — not a cell to be found that 
 is net partially or wholly destroyed. 
 
 We have per?onally inspected them in more than twenty diflfer- 
 ent places, and i.je satisfied that in this county the eggs of the 
 festive G. H. are a "total wreck." Allow us to suggest that you 
 call for a report from every county in the State that has been 
 infested by them. — [Letter to Pioneer Prexs and Trihiuie, from 
 Bell & Grilelle, Worthington, Nobles Co., Minn., Aug. 16, 1876. . 
 
 I send, enclosed in a circular tin box, mailed with this, some 
 dirt containing grasshopper's eggs, and also the red mite or spider 
 that sucks them, as you will perceive on examination. I trust they 
 will be received in good order. I send them at the request of A. 
 Whitman, of St. Paul, of this State, with whom 1 am correspond- 
 ing sometimes on this grasshopper matter. — [Letter from R. B. 
 Potts, U. S. N., Worthington, Minn., Aug. 18, 1876. 
 
 Up to the autumn of 1876 the Silky Mite was the only 
 parasite that was known to attack the eggs of our locust, 
 though a small Chalcid-fly* had been bred by Mr. S. H. 
 Scudder, from those of the Carolina Locust, a large species 
 with blue and black hind wings ; and two Ichneumon-flies 
 were known to attack locust eggs in Europe. In 1876 I 
 found five new insect enemies attacking these eggs almost 
 everywhere throughout the infested country, and these I 
 will proceed to describe. 
 
 * Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hiet., XII, p. 99. Mr. Scudder has kindly furnished 
 me with female specimens. They are about 0.20 inch long, pitchy black, the head 
 and thorax very deeply pitted and roughened, and the abdomen, which is flattened 
 and quite tapering, also deeply marked with irregular, longitudinal depressions. 
 The antennae have the scape as long as the flagellum, which is curved and enlarges 
 to tip, which is suddenly docked. The scape, basal joint of flagellum and legs are 
 honey-yellow ; the wings hyaline. 
 
 A similar, if not the same Chalcid, infests the eggs of sprelus, for Mr. Potts 
 has sent me egg-masses in which every egg had a Clialcid pupa. Unfortunately, 
 they were too dry when received to permit of rearing the imago. 
 
118 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 The Anthomyia Egg-Parasitk, {Anthomyia radicnni, 
 var. calopteni.) — This is by far the most wide-spread and 
 generally useful of the different egg enemies. It has 
 occurred in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska., Kansas, Missouri 
 and Texas, and wherever I have examined the locust eggs, 
 
 [ n^'. 21.] 
 
 Anthomyia EggPauasite;— a. fly, 6. pupa c, larva from side, d. iiL-ail of same 
 from above— enlarged 
 
 whether in Missouri, Kansas or Nebraska, I have found it 
 
 destroying on an average about ten per cent, of them. 
 
 The following items will serve as samples of many others 
 
 that might be given, referring to the work of this same 
 
 parasite : 
 
 Recently a white worm or maggot has been discovered in the 
 locust eggs laid in this vicinity, and so general are the grubs that 
 we really look for a great diminution in next year's locust crop. 
 About the time the hoppers began laying eggs we had a hard, soak- 
 ing rain, and since then we have had several more — the last this 
 morning. By this time the ground is well soaked with wa'er and 
 the eggs were and are laid in eai th that is quite moist. It is about 
 two weeks since the hoppers first reached Mankato, they have laid 
 many eggs, and already this worm or maggot has developed and 
 seems to be on the increase, being found in the egg cells, where it 
 sucks or destroys the egg. Some cells that I have opened have 
 had two and three worms in them. — [From a letter from J. C.Wise, 
 Mankato, Minn., August 20, 1876. 
 
 On the ninth I sent you a b'^x of locust egg parasites, and to-day 
 I will send you some more of different sorts or different stages of de- 
 
Natural Enemies. 119 
 
 velopment or both, I find them more plentiful to-day than before. 
 The grcmnd seems to be full of them, from five to twenty of the 
 small white worms in a single cell, one generally, though sometimes 
 two of the large white ones in a cell. The reddish colored ones I 
 suppose are in a different stage of development, though ihe same 
 parasite. In every cell iu which I have found any of those sent 
 you, the eggs wore nearly or quite destroyed. But there is another, 
 and a far more destructive enemy, viz. , the hot sun, which is hatch- 
 ing them out by the million, though the parasites may continue 
 their work after it ceases to operate. I shall be happy to do all I 
 can to aid you in your investigations, — [Letter from C. E. Treadwell, 
 Rockport, Atchison county, October 16, 1876, 
 
 Yesterday we discovered on a warm southern exposure that our 
 locust eggs were hatching out maggots. We break open the cocoons 
 and the eg|gs on exposure to the sun for a few moments crawl away 
 a worm. In warm places along the hedges the earth is alive with 
 them. Is this a new development of the locust question? It would 
 seem to be a confirmation of the theory you promulgated, as I 
 understood it, at the time, I secured a few of the perfect cocoons 
 which I enclose for your examination. We suppose these will do 
 as the others do upon exposure to the sun. 
 
 The people here are quite excited over the matter, hoping it 
 may be a solution of the problem for next year, at least, and have 
 deputed me to lay the matter before you. Any information you 
 can give us in regard to this our latest development, will be thank- 
 fully received and acknowledged. — [Letter from S. M. Pratt, M.D., 
 Hiawatha, Brown County, Kansas, October 30, 1876. 
 
 Various reports have been circulated in regard to the destruction 
 of the eggs of tlie Rocky Mountain Locust {C(-doptenus spretus) by 
 a worm. I am happy to state that these reports were substantiated 
 yesterday by Mr, McLockhead, of Deer Creek, Kanawaka, twelve 
 miles west of this city, who brought me a box of earth in which 
 the eggs of the "hopper " had been abundantly deposited. To-day 
 a similar box was secured from W. B. Barnett, Esq., of Hiawatha, 
 Brown county. In both of these instances a large proportion of 
 the eggs have been destroyed by a small, white larva. Many of 
 the egg-cases, which ordinarily each contain from twenty to tliirty 
 eggs, had no eggs in them, but were full of these worms or larvae, 
 each one of which took the place of an egg which it had destroyed. 
 Some of the egg-cases contained only two or three larvae with more 
 than twenty sound eggs. I consider these to be the larvae of a 
 parasitic Hymenopterous insect [it was subsequently verified as the 
 Anthomyia under consideration] which I hope to obtain in the 
 winged or perfect state, if I succeed in carrying them safely through 
 their transformation. — [Prof, F, H. Snow, in Lawrence (Kansas) 
 Journal, November 1, 1876. 
 
 This good little friend, which simultaneously prevailed 
 over so large an extent of country, is a small white mag- 
 
120 The Hoclcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 got, (Fig. 21, c) of the same general form of the common 
 meat maggots or "gentles," but measuring, when full grown 
 and extended, not quite one-fourth of an inch in length. 
 The head, with some of the anterior joints of the body, 
 tapers and is retractile, and the jaws consist of two small 
 hooks joined to a V-shaped, black, horny piece which, as 
 it is retracted or extended, plays beneath the transparent 
 skin. The hind or tail end is squarely docked oft', and 
 contains two small yellowish-brown, eye-like spots, which 
 are the principal spiracles or breathing pores. 
 
 These small maggots are found in the locust egg-pods, 
 either singly or in varying numbers, there sometimes being 
 a dozen packed together in the same pod. They exhaust 
 the juices of the eggs, and leave nothing but the dry and 
 discolored shells ; and where they are not numerous 
 enough to destroy all the eggs in the pod, their work, in 
 breaking open a few, often causes all the others to rot. 
 
 When fed to repletion, this maggot contracts to a little 
 cylindrical, yellowish -brown pupa, (Fig, 21 5), about half 
 the length of the outstretched and full-grown larva, and 
 rounded at both ends. From this pupa, in the course of a 
 week in warm weather, and longer as the weather is colder, 
 there issues a small, grayish, two-winged fly (Fig. 21 a), 
 about one-fourth of an inch long, the wings expanding 
 about one-half of an inch, and in general appearance re- 
 sembling a diminutive house-fly, except that the body is 
 more slender and more taj^ering behind, and the wings 
 relatively more ample. More carefully examined, the body 
 is seen to be of an ash-gray color, tinged with rust-yellow, 
 and beset with stifi", bristle-like hairs, those on the thorax 
 stoutest, and those on the abdomen smaller but more uni- 
 formly distributed. The wings are faintly smoky and 
 iridescent. There are three dusky longitudinal stripes on 
 the thorax, most distinct anteriorly, and another along the 
 
Natural Enemies. 121 
 
 middle of the abdomen, most distinct in the male, which 
 also differs from the female in the larger eyes, which meet 
 much more closely on the top of the head than in the 
 female, and in the face being whiter. 
 
 The winter is passed mostly in the pupa state, though 
 doubtless in some cases also in the winged state. 
 
 The flies of this genus are characterized by the shortness 
 of the antennae, and by the attenuated abdomen. The 
 characters given to it are, however, by no means uniform, 
 and as the species generally bear a very close resemblance 
 to each other, and there have been a large number de- 
 scribed in Europe (many of them very imperfectly), it 
 becomes almost an impossibility to properly determine 
 them. As the sexes often differ materially, it is also, 
 except where they are reared from the larva, difficult to 
 connect them ; and as the colors often become sordid and 
 dull in the cabinet, many of the described species have no 
 real existence. 
 
 The flies frequent flowers, and often congregate and i:»lay 
 in swarms in the air. Their eggs are white, smooth, oval, 
 about 0.04 inch long, and are dropped near the food of the 
 larva. In the larva state, these insects mostly feed on 
 leguminous plants, and the carnivorous habit is excep- 
 tional. The species affecting the cabbage, the onion, the 
 radish, etc., have received different names, as brassicce, 
 ceparum, raphani, etc., but several of them doubtless 
 constitute but one species. A comparison of those reared 
 from the locust eggs with the descriptions of brassicce and 
 ceparum, has not enabled me to discover any constant dif- 
 ferences, and they should perhaps all be referred to radi- 
 cum, Linn. At all events, I feel that it is safest to define 
 the insect under consideration merely as a variety of that 
 species, leaving the proper determination of it to the 
 future monographer of the genus. 
 
122 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 The probabilities are that, feeding normally on the roots 
 of various plants, it found locust eggs to its liking, and 
 multiplied rapidly as a result of the abundance of such 
 eggs. 
 
 Anthomyia radicum (Linn.) var. calopteni. • 
 
 Egg — Oval, smooth, white, 0.04 inch long. 
 
 Larva — Skin unarmed, 0.24 inch long when extended, of the 
 normal form, the mandibular hooks black, quite conspicuous, and 
 diverging at base. Prothoracic spiracles elongate. Anal spiracles 
 minute, yellowish-brown, with the eight fleshy surrounding tuber- 
 cles, small. 
 
 Pwpa — Pale-brown, rounded at each end, with the prothoracic 
 spiracles and lips anteriorly, and the anal spiracles and lower 
 tubercles posteriorly, showing as minute points. 
 
 Imago — ?. Average expanse, 0.48 inch. General color ash- 
 gray, with a ferruginous hue, especially above, and a more or less 
 intense metallic reflection. Face with white reflections below; eyes 
 smooth, brown, encircled by the ground color, and this behind and 
 on forehead, bordered by a brown line ; two similar lines at back 
 of head from upper corners of eyes, and approaching to neck; 
 forehead dusky brown, becoming bright yellowish-red toward base 
 of antennae, and the brown forking at right angles around occiput. 
 Trophi and antennae black, the style simple and somewhat longer 
 than the whole antennae. Thorax with three dusky longitudinal 
 lines, obsolete behind ; legs black, with cinereous hue beneath ; 
 wings faintly smoky, with brown-black veins, the discal cross- 
 vein straight and transverse, the outer one bent and more oblique ; 
 balancers crumpled, yellowish. Abdomen with faint dusky medio- 
 dorsal spots, broad at base, tapering and obsolescing toward end 
 of each joint. 
 
 In the 3, aside from the larger eyes, stronger bristles, and nar- 
 rower, less tapering abdomen, with its additional joint — all charac- 
 teristic of the sex — the face is whiter, and the medio-dorsal dark 
 mark of abdomen continues. 
 
 Described from 25 specimens of both sexes, reared from locust 
 egg-feeding larvos. 
 
 Specimens bred from cabbage and radish roots, and others in my 
 cabinet, taken from the burrows (made in Osage Orange, in Mis- 
 souri), of Crabro stirpicola, Pack., do not difi"er specifically. 
 
Natural Enemies. 
 
 123 
 
 The Common Flesh Fly {Sarcophaga carnaria, L.) — 
 The red-tailed variety {sarracenim) of this ubiquitous 
 insect, described and figured further on, as preying on the 
 locust, also attacks its eggs. It is a larger maggot than 
 the preceding, and contracts to a darker pupa which is 
 not similarly rounded at each end, but has the hind end 
 truncate, and the front end tapering. It sucks the eggs, 
 as does the Anthomyia larva, but the parent fly is probably 
 attracted principally to those which are addled or injured, 
 as the pods in which I have found it have very generally 
 been in a fluid state of decay. From three quarts of eggs 
 I have obtained twenty-six of these flies. 
 
 Undetermined Species. — Next to the Anthomyia Egg- 
 parasite in importance is a much larger, more sluggish, 
 
 yellowish grub (Fig. 22), 
 measuring about half an 
 inch when extended, 
 which is found within or 
 beneath the locust eggs, 
 lying in a curved position, 
 the body being bent so 
 that the head and tail 
 nearly touch each other. 
 It is a smooth grub, with 
 a very small, brown, flat- 
 tened head, with the joints near the head swollen, and the 
 hind end tapering, and with deep, translucent sutures 
 beneath the joints, which sutures show certain vinous 
 marks and mottlings, especially along the middle of the 
 back. It exhausts the eggs, and leaves nothing but the 
 shrunken and discolored shells. It has not yet been reared 
 to the perfect state, but from the structure of its mouth 
 it is evidently Hymenopterous, and will produce, without 
 much doubt, some Ichneumon-fly. It has been found in 
 
 Undetbbmined Egg-parasite of R, M. 
 Locust. 
 
124 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, and has destroyed 
 about one per cent, of the eggs. 
 
 The following letters refer to this species : 
 
 The other day, as I was stroUing through the fields, I stopped to 
 examine some eggs. I found the ground in spots quite full of white 
 grubs, worms or maggots, whatever they may be called. Many of 
 them were in the egg-pods, busy at worlc. I collected a few, and 
 sent to you in a small vial by mail for your examination. The 
 ground was high and dry where found. — [From S. D.Payne, Ka- 
 sota, Le Sueur County, Minn., Sept. 28, 1876. 
 
 I think the Silky Mite has done good service in destroying eggs 
 in one or two counties, particularly Nobles. But we are getting, in 
 addition, continual newspaper reports of white grubs destroying the 
 eggs. I started out to see for myself, and have found a number, 
 which I send you. — [From A. Whitman, St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 7, 
 1876. 
 
 This grub is found of various sizes as winter sets in, 
 and hibernates without change. It will doubtless be reared 
 to the perfect state the coming summer, and I give a more 
 detailed description herewith. 
 
 Average length, 0.50 inch. Body curved, glabrous, tapering pos- 
 teriorly, swollen anteriorly. Color opaque whitish, with translucent 
 yellowish mottlings, and some vinous marks at sutures, especially 
 aiong medio-dorsum. Sutures deep. A lateral row of swellings. 
 Head small, flattened, dark-brown, in five pieces, consisting above 
 of a frontal ovoid piece, and two lateral pieces of somewhat similar 
 form, and each bearing near tip a minute, two-jointed palpus ; be- 
 neath of two broad, sub-triangular jaws, having forward and lateral 
 motion, and each also bearing near the center, in a depression, a 
 two-jointed feeler. A sjiiracle each side in a fold between joints 
 2 and 3, andanother on each side of the penultimate joint, 12. None 
 otherwise perceptible. 
 
 Besides the three preceding species which were found 
 destroying the eggs in 1876, and which, from their being 
 generally found within the egg-pod, may be called parasitic, 
 though they are not strictly so, I have also found the 
 larvae of two species of Ground-beetles {Carabidce) attack- 
 ing said eggs. One pale species (Fig. 23), evidently be- 
 
Natural Enemies. 
 
 125 
 
 longing to the genus Harpalus, is more particularly com- 
 mon, and busy in the good work. It is an active creature, 
 something over half an inch long, with powerful jaws and 
 a light-brown head and prothorax, and the rest of the body 
 pale, tapering posteriorly, [Pig. 23.] 
 
 and ending in a stout 
 proleg and two articulate 
 appendages. For the en- 
 tomological reader I ap- 
 pend a more detailed de- 
 scription : 
 
 Color yellowish white; pro- 
 thorax and head highly pol- 
 ished yellowish-brown, the _. 
 jaws darker. Head broad, 
 depressed and rugose in front; 
 jaws broad, robust, dark, and 
 with but one strong middle 
 tooth ; antennoe 5 jointed, 
 joints 4 and 5 scarcely equaling 
 Sin length ; maxilloe elongate, 
 sub-cylindrical, with a 4-joint- 
 ed outer and a 2-jointed in- 
 ner palpus ; mentum elongate, 
 its base soldered with the 
 lower head; labrumalso elongate and with 2-j minted palpi; all trophi 
 armed with stiff hair. Prothoracic joint, swollen, wider than head, 
 twice as long as succeeding joint, horny, and with a darker anterior 
 border, limited by a transverse stria posteriorly and marked with fine 
 longitudinal strioe. Legs, except coxae, dark brown and thickly 
 beset with short, spinous bristles of the same color. Abdomen 
 tapering to end, with no horny plates, but each joint with two 
 transverse rows of stiff yellowish hairs, the posterior rows strongest. 
 Anal proleg stout, the cerci 4 jointed (joints 3 and 4 small and im- 
 perfectly separated) and reaching but little beyond it ; eyes small, 
 dark, and just behind base of antennae. Length of largest speci- 
 mens 0.58 inch. 
 
 Eight specimens feeding on eggs of Caloptenus spretus. 
 
 Habpalttb? Larva that pkeys on Lo- 
 cust Eggs-— a. larva from above, b. head, 
 from beneath c .eg— en argcd. 
 
126 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 . j, under side 
 
 The other Ground-beetle, belonging probably to the 
 same genus as the above, is of about the same size and has 
 precisely the same structure. It is at once distinguished, 
 however, by a series of broad, dark-brown, horny plates 
 along the back, by paler horny pieces along the sides and 
 beneath; by the darker, somewhat narrower prothorax; by 
 [Fi?. 24.] the pale legs, 
 
 and by the 
 shorter anal 
 cerci. I have 
 found three 
 specimens of 
 this last feed- 
 ing on the 
 
 eggs, and one was sent to me as having the same 
 habit, by Mr. Whitman, of St. Paul. Mr. G. F. Gaumer 
 has sent me what he took to be a minute Rove-beetle 
 [Staphylinidce) found feeding on the eggs, and they prove 
 to be newly hatched specimens of the above Carabid 
 larva. 
 
 It is probable that most of the Carabid larvae will feed 
 on the eggs, and I introduce the figure of a larger species 
 (Fig. 24) and its probable parent, the Pennsylvania 
 Ground-beetle {^Ilarpalus pennsylv aniens^ DeGeer, Fig.'25). 
 I have every reason to believe, also, that certain Click- 
 beetle larvae {ElateridcB) and certain Myriapods devour the 
 eggs, while I have actually caught the common White 
 Grub (larva of Lachnosterna fusca) feeding upon them. 
 
 Haepaltts-' Larva:— 5. underside of head; ft 
 of diflerent joints of body. 
 
 INSECTS THAT DESTEOY THE ACTIVE LOCUST. 
 
 In a general way it may be stated that all the larger 
 predaceous species prey on the locusts. The Ground- 
 beetles {CarabidcB) are conspicuous among these, and the 
 Fiery Calosoma (Fig. 26) and the Elongate Ground-beetle 
 
Natural Enemies. 
 
 12r 
 
 (Fig. 27) are two of our largest and most common 
 species. 
 
 [Fig. 251 
 
 [Fig. 26.] 
 
 Pbnnstlvania Gkound-Bektlb. 
 
 Calosoma calidum, with larva. 
 
 Mr. H. A. Brous, who, while in Western Kansas in 1876, 
 made careful notes of everything he observed relating to 
 the Rocky Mountain Locust, has sent me a number of 
 
 [Fig.' 28.] 
 [Fig. 27.] 
 
 Pasimachus elongatus. 
 
 insects found preying upon it that 
 had not before been observed at 
 such work. Among them are 
 
 various Asilus-flies,* and several aj 
 
 MBLYCUILA CYLINDRIFORMIS. 
 
 * Stenopogon consanguineus, Loew, a species with pale yellowish hairs on 
 head and thorax, yellowish -brown wings and pale rufous legs and abdomen ; Pro- 
 tnachus apivora, Fitch : Erax Bastardli (Fig. 29) ; seveiral allied species of Erax, 
 and a species of Tobnerus. 
 
128 
 
 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Ground-beetles and Tiger-beetles.* More particularly 
 noteworthy among these last is that large and most ele- 
 gant dark -brown species which I herewith figure (Fig. 28), 
 and which has been esteemed as a great rarity among 
 Coleopterists. Mr. Brous found it much more common 
 than it was generally supposed, and attributes its reputed 
 [Fig. 29.) rarity to its secretive and nocturnal 
 
 habits. It lives in holes in clayey 
 banks, and issues in search of food 
 only at night or early morn. Of 
 Heteroptera, there is a Soldier-bug 
 of the genus Apiomerus and allied 
 to crassi2)es / and of Hymenoptera 
 there are two Ichneumons — a Com- 
 poplex and Ephialtes notanda^ Cress. 
 — that were noticed pursuing the 
 locusts, and are possibly parasitic 
 upon them. The Preying Mantis 
 {Mantis Carolina, L.) has also been observed feeding on 
 them. 
 
 The full grown locusts are subject to the attacks of the 
 following parasites: 
 
 Erax Bastardii 
 b, puba. 
 
 -(', ny; 
 
 [Fig, 30.] 
 
 The Locust Mite {Astoma gryllaria, 
 LeBaron, Fig. 30.) — This mite, though insig- 
 nificant in the matter of size, is nevertheless 
 a most efficient enemy. Almost every one 
 who has paid any attention to the locusts must 
 have noticed that they are often more or less 
 covered, especially around the base of the 
 The Locust wings, with Small red mites, seldom larger 
 
 Mite, sreatly en- ° . 
 
 largeci. than the head of a pin. These mites have 
 
 * Pasimachus elongatus, Lee. ; P. punciulatus, Hald. ; Calosoma obsoletuni. 
 Say; Cicindela pidchra, Say ; C. scutellaris. Say; C.6-gitttata, Fabr.; C.fu!gida, 
 Say ; V. vulgaris, Say ; C circumpicta, Laf. ; V. formosa. Say ; C. punctulala, 
 Fabr. 
 
Natural Enemies. 129 
 
 but six legs which, though easily visible when the animal 
 first attaches itself, become more or less obsolete and in- 
 visible as it swells and enlarges, though a careful examin- 
 ation will generally reveal them at the anterior end of the 
 body. The mite, therefore, more often presents to the 
 ordinary observer a bright red, swollen, ovoid body, so 
 immovable and firmly attached by its minute jaws, that 
 those who are not aware of its nature might easily be led 
 into believing it a natural growth or excrescence. In 
 fact, it attacks the locust precisely as the different wood- 
 ticks attack man and the lower mammals. 
 
 This mite belongs to the genus Astotna, briefly charac- 
 terized by Latreille for a very similar mite {Astona 2)ara- 
 siticiim) which affects the common House-fly and several 
 other insects. The specific name locustarura was first pro- 
 posed for it by B. D. Walsh,* but Dr. LeBaron afterwards 
 gave it the name of Atonia gryllaria,\ in connection with 
 the following more detailed description : 
 
 Thej'^are of an oblong, oval form, moderately convex and having 
 an uneven surface, produced by four shallow depressions on tlie 
 upper side, the two larger near the middle, and the others behiud 
 them. The body has also two slight constrictions, giving it the 
 appearance of being divided into three segments ; but the im- 
 pressions are superficial and only visible at the sides. The whole 
 surface is finely striate, under the microscope, the strise running in 
 a waving transverse direction. The mouth-organs appear to be 
 reduced to their minimum of development. The only part visible, 
 externally, is a minute papilla, on each side of which are two 
 bristles, the inner of which is stouter, tapering to an acute point, 
 and curved inwards, or toward its fellow of the opposite side. 
 They differ from the majority of Acarides in having but six legs, 
 and these, being of but little use in so stationary a creature, are 
 
 * Practical JEntomologist, I, p. l-it!. 
 
 + LeBaron'sSndlll. Ent. Rep., 187'2, p.l56. The author employs the term ^<oma, 
 which, though at first go employed by Latieille, is corrected to Astoinain his "Gen- 
 era Crustaceoruni et Insectorum," I, p. 162, (1806). 
 9 
 
130 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 short and slender, projecting but little beyond the outline of the 
 body. They are 6-jointed fin reality they are but 5-jointed, the 
 middle joint much the shortest, and the terminal joint longest. — 
 0. V. R.], garnished with short stiff bristles, and terminate in two 
 slender, curved hooks. The anterior and middle legs are closely 
 approximate and situated near the anterior extremity of the body ; 
 the posterior are set a little nearer to each other, and a little in ad- 
 vance of the middle of the body, being inserted at the posterior part 
 of the anterior division or lobe. Four hairs project from the pos- 
 terior extremity of the body. 
 
 [Fig. 31.] The dorsal figure just given (Fig. 30,) ex- 
 
 hibits the general appearance of the mite 
 under a high magnifying power, and figure 
 _^ ^^ 31 which represents a ventral view of the mite 
 v^^ S^<^ found on our house-flies, and which is doubt- 
 less the A. parasiticum of Latreille, will 
 better show the structure of the head and 
 AsTOMA, parapite legs. During some seasons scarcely a fly can 
 ouse- y. j^^ caught that is not infested with a number 
 of these blood-red mites, clinging tenaciously around the 
 base of the wings. 
 
 The genus Astoma (and the same is probably true of 
 most other six-legged genera) is only the larval or imma. 
 ture form of some other mite ; and this very Locust Mite 
 may be the larva of the Silky Mite previously described, 
 for aught we know to the contrary — so much is there yet 
 to learn of the transformations of the mites. Indeed, 
 Hermann, and some other arachnologists have actually 
 referred Astoma to Trombidium. In speaking of the Irri- 
 tating Harvest Mite {Leptas irritans, Riley, 6th Rep., p. 
 122) — the so-called Jigger of the Mississippi Valley, which 
 is, in all probability, also an immature form — I have stated 
 my belief that its normal food must, apparently, consist of 
 the juices of plants, and that *' the love of blood proves 
 ruinous to those individuals who get a chance to indulge 
 
Natural Enemies. 131 
 
 it ; for unlike the true chigoe, the female of which deposits 
 eggs in the wound she makes, these harvest mites have no 
 object of the kind, and, when not killed at the hands of 
 those they torment, they soon die — victims to their san- 
 guinary appetite."* The same argument may, I think, 
 be applied to the Locust Mite. 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust infested with this mite was 
 sent to me in 1868 by Uriah Bruner, of Omaha, Neb., and 
 in 1869 by Clark Irvine and C. Twine, of Oregon, T. K. 
 Faulkner, of Whitesville, and Jno. P. Dopf, of Rock Port, 
 Mo., — the latter gentleman stating that it was fast causing 
 a diminution in the ranks of the common enemy. I have 
 also received it from Minnesota and Kansas, and found it 
 on several of our native locusts ; while the following pas- 
 sage from an editorial account of the ravages of locusts in 
 Kansas in 1869, which appeared in the Prairie Farmer, 
 (Aug. 21, 1869,) is a sample of many newspaper accounts, 
 and will show how efficient even a mite may be in killing: 
 
 The course of the locusts was brought to a sudden halt by the 
 operation of some parasite, appearing in the shape of small red 
 mites, which attach themselves to the body, under the wings, where 
 they suck the carcass to a dry shell; the dead bodies of the grass- 
 hoppers almost covering some plants, where they have taken hold 
 of a leaf or stalk, and clasped it, with a dead embrace; many others 
 fall to the ground to die, too weak to rise again. In a half day's 
 examination, where they were very thick, we failed to find more than 
 two grasshoppers not so attacked, and this was not local; for a dis- 
 tance of thirty miles across the country thej' were found similarly 
 affected. 
 
 Thk Anonymous Tachina-fly. — Our locust, like so many 
 other insects, is also subject to the attacks of certain two- 
 winged flies much resembling the common House-fly, but 
 larger. One is the very same Tachina-fly (Tachina anon- 
 yma) which I have bred from a number of other insects.f 
 
 * Am. Naturalist, Vol. VII, p. 19. 
 
 t See Mo. Ent. Repts., 4, p. 129, and 5, p. 133. 
 
132 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 I first reared this fly from specimens of the Rocky Moun- 
 tain Locust sent me by Jos. C. Shattuck, Supt. of Public 
 Instruction, Greeley, Col., who, July 14, 1873, wrote of 
 its work as follows : 
 
 * * Also, I will say that the grasshoppers which a month 
 since seriously threatened to devour every green thing, have met 
 with a mortal foe and been slain by millions. (Don't think " mil- 
 lions" too large a word.) Very few have taken to "themselves 
 wings and flown awa}'," as heretofore, but lie dead in the fields 
 they lately ravaged. A small fly pierces them and deposits an egg 
 while on the icing, (or on the jump), and, like Herod of old, " they 
 are eaten of worms and give up the ghost." 
 
 The following items refer to the same insect: 
 
 A Grasshopper- Exterminating Fly.— It seems that the grasshop- 
 pers that are so destructive to vegetation in many places in the 
 central portion of the continent, are likely to find an enemy which 
 threatens their rapid destruction. The Deer Lodge Independent 
 says that a fly has made its appearance, closely resembling the com- 
 mon house-fly, but much larger, and of a gray, mottled color, which 
 deposits its eggs under the wings of the grasshopper. The egg is 
 enclosed in a glutinous substance, which secures it in its position 
 until the worm is matured [embryon developed]. It then pene- 
 trates the body of the grasshopper, which speedily dies. The 
 worm then burrows in the ground, and at the end of seventeen days 
 comes forth a fly, ready to again commence the work of destruc- 
 tion. Mr. Wm. Walker, of Dempsey Creek, informs the Independ- 
 ent that twice during the past summer the grasshoppers threatened 
 to destroy his crops, but the flies killed them so rapidly that tbey 
 did him but little damage. As the grasshoppers were killed before 
 depositing their eggs, it is generally believed that this plague is 
 ended in the Deer Lodge Valley. — [Published in several Montana 
 papers in the summer of 1874. 
 
 A great many of the locusts seemed to be punctured on the back, 
 and on pulling their heads off" after death (many were found dead) 
 from one to three ordinary looking maggots would be found. Many 
 farmers fear it might be an introduction of a new plague. May 
 not this gentleman with his little gimlet in time prove the destroyer 
 of the hateful locust?— [R. P. C. Wilson, Platte City, Mo., in pri- 
 vate letter. 
 
 I saw a hopper kicking about as if he could hardly move; I 
 pulled him to pieces and found that he contained a footless grub, 
 half an inch in length. In a short time more were procured, placed 
 in a covered tumbler, where, in a little more than two weeks, the 
 grubs changed to Tachina flies, very much resembling the common 
 house-flies. * * When we remember what an enormous number 
 of eggs (fly-blows) a fly will lay, and that each, in about a month, will 
 
Natural Enemies. 133 
 
 be a perfect fly, it is seen that it would take but a few generations 
 to clean out an army of grasshoppers. — [Oscar J. Strong, Rolfe, 
 Pocahontas County, Iowa, in Western Farmer, Feb., 1869. 
 
 Mr. Byers, in speaking of the locusts hatching in Colo- 
 rado in 1865, {loc. cit.) says: "That upon attaining about 
 half their full size, they were attacked by a fly, which, 
 stinging them in the back between the roots of the wings, 
 deposited one or more eggs, which produced a large white 
 maggot. The worm subsisted upon the grasshopper, finally 
 causing its death, when it cut its way out and entered the 
 earth. In this way probably half were destroyed, often 
 covering the ground, and filling the furrows in plowed 
 fields with their carcasses. The remainder, when their 
 wings were sufficiently developed, took to flight, moving 
 southeast, and we lost trace of them on the great Plains." 
 
 Mr. J. W. Crow, of Bigelow, Mo., in his correspondence 
 with me, describes these maggots as infesting the " hop- 
 pers" in Holt county in the fall of 1876 ; and in 1869 I 
 received the parasite from John P. Dopf, of Rock Port, 
 Atchison County, Mo., and have bred it from the Differen- 
 tial Locust, figured further on, and from the Carolina Lo- 
 cust {(Edipoda Carolina, L.) in St. Louis County. 
 
 Finally, Mr. S. E. Wilber, of Greeley, Col., has published 
 an account of what is evidently the same fly.* In this 
 account, after showing how persistently the fly pursues 
 the locust — leaving it no rest, and so effectually weaken- 
 ing whole swarms as to render them harmless — he expresses 
 the opinion that the constant importunities and annoyances 
 of this fly are the cause of locust migrations. While, 
 however, they may constitute a factor in the result, such a 
 conclusion is too sweeping. 
 
 The Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly {Exorista Jiavicauda., Ri- 
 ley, Fig. 32) which is so useful in destroying the Army- 
 
 * Popular Science Monthly, IV, p. 745. 
 
134 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 worm, will serve to illustrate the species, and, indeed, 
 differs from it very little except in being somewhat larger, 
 and in having the tip of the abdomen yellow. 
 
 These Tachina-flies firmly fasten their eggs — which are 
 [Pig. 32.] oval, white and opaque, and 
 
 quite tough — to those parts of 
 the body not easily reached by 
 the jaws and legs of their vic- 
 tim, and thus prevent the &gg 
 from being detached. The 
 slow-flying locusts are attack- 
 ed while flying, and it is quite 
 amusing to watch the frantic 
 yellowtailed'tachina-flt. efforts which one of them, 
 haunted by a Tachina-fly, will make to evade its enemy. 
 The fly buzzes around, waiting her opportunity, and 
 when the locust jumps or flies, darts at it and attempts 
 to attach her egg under the wing or on the neck. The 
 attempt frequently fails, but she perseveres until she usu- 
 ally accomplishes her object. With those locusts which 
 fly readily, she has even greater difliculty ; but though the 
 locust tacks suddenly in all directions in its efforts to avoid 
 her, she circles close around it and generally succeeds in 
 accomplishing her purpose, either while the locust is yet 
 on the wing, or, more often, just as it alights from a flight 
 or a hop. The young maggots hatching from these eggs 
 eat into the body of the locust, and after rioting on the 
 fatty parts of the body — leaving the more vital parts 
 untouched — they issue and burro V7 in the ground, where 
 they contract to brown, egg-like pupae, from which the fly 
 issues either in the same season or not till the following 
 spring. A locust infested with this parasite is more lan- 
 guid than it otherwise would be ; yet it seldom dies till 
 the maggots have left. Often in pulling off the wings of 
 
Natural Enemies. 
 
 135 
 
 such as were hopping about, the bodies have presented the 
 appearance of a mere shell, filled with maggots ; and so 
 efficient is this parasite that the ground in parts of the 
 Western States is often covered with the Rocky Mountain 
 Locust dead and dying from this cause. 
 
 The Common Flesh-fly {Sarcojyhaga carnaria, Linn.) 
 
 — This fly, which is at once distinguished from the Tach- 
 
 ina-fly by the style of [Fig. 33.] 
 
 the antenna, being hairy 
 
 (Fig. 33, i,) instead of 
 
 smooth, is also a great 
 
 enemy of the Rocky 
 
 Mountain Locust, 
 
 though I think it must 
 
 be looked upon more as 
 
 a ■soavenjyer tlian as an Sakcophaga sahkacknixe:— a, larva-, 6, pupa;c, 
 d, &Cd,veugei LlldU d,S a,U fly, ti,e hair lines showing average natural lengths! 
 nntivfi mracito onrl f'. enlarged head and first Joint of larva, showing 
 
 rti^Livc p<ii£ioii,c, aiiu curved hooks, lower lip (ff; and prothoracic spir- 
 
 . 1 , -4. • , , . •> acles ; e, end of body of same, showing stigmata 
 
 mat It IS attracted (/) and prolegs and vent; h, tarsal claws of dy, 
 . ,, with protecting pads; ;, antenna of same— eii- 
 
 more especially to those larged. 
 
 specimens which are feeble or already dead. I have 
 r.'ceived it among the Tachina parasites sent by Mr. Shat- 
 tuck, from Colorado, and from Professor C. E. Bessey, of 
 Ames, Iowa, who bred it from the Differential Locust, and 
 published the following description of its work : 
 
 A Commendable Fly. — During the summer I noticed that many 
 of the large yellow grasshoppers {Cdloptenus differentialis) were in- 
 fested by the maggot of a species of fly very ncirly resembling, if 
 uot identical with, the common Flesh-fiy {Sarcophaga carnaria.) 
 Many of the grasshoppers were almost completely eaten out wiien 
 found, retaining just sufficient strength to hop feebly over the 
 ground. I estimate that this particular species of grasshopper was 
 diminished in numbers at least one-tenth, possibly one-eighth, by 
 these new friends. It is to be hoped that these new parasites wii! 
 increase rapidly. Professor C. V. Riloy informs me that tlie Mi- 
 gratory Locust (Ciiloptemts spretvs) is also infested by a similar one. 
 Thus far, however, I have failed to detect any in the specimens 
 collected in this vicinity. 
 
136 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 I have also bred it from a number of our native locusts 
 whose carcasses — forsaken by the sarcophagous larvje — 
 may quite frequently be seen fastened to the upright stems 
 of different plants in the fall of the year. I have also bred 
 it from the common Carolina Mantis,* which it attacked 
 while living, and have known it to infest the common 
 Walking-stick {^Spectrmn fenioratimi). Indeed, the spe- 
 cies is a most widely-spread and general scavenger, occur- 
 ring m most civilized countries, and feeding, as a rule, 
 on dead and decaying animal matter, and only exception- 
 ally on living insects. By way of illustrating its trans- 
 formations, I introduce a figure of the Sai'racenia Flesh-fly 
 which feeds on the dead insects caught in those curious 
 traps, the trumpet leaves {Sarracenia) , and which is 
 probably only a variety {sarracenice, Riley) of carnaria. f 
 These flies lay elongate and delicate eggs, which hatch 
 very quickly. They sometimes hatch, in fact, within the 
 ovaries, so that the fly gives birth to living larvae. These 
 are distinguished from those of the Tachina-flies by being 
 more concave and truncated at the posterior end (see Fig. 
 33, a). The Tachina larva is rounded posteriorly, with a 
 
 * On the 18th of October, 1868, at South Pass, 111., I found fastenefl to a tree 
 a large female Mantis, still alive, but with the abdomen hanging down, partially 
 decomposed and filled with Sarcophaga larvre. These remained In the larva state 
 in the groand till the next July, but gave forth the flies at the end of that month. 
 The flies marked in my cabinet Sarcophaga carnaria, var. inanlivora, diflfer in no 
 respect from the common carnaria, except in size, seven not averaging more 
 than 0.20 inch in length. 
 
 t The flies bred from Caloptenus have the tip of the abdomen reddish, as in 
 Sarcophaga sarracenue, and indued are undistmguishable from the smaller speci 
 mens of this last. The larva differs, however, in having the surface more coarsely 
 granulated, it being regularly and uniformly covered with minute papilte , in the 
 less conspicuous, prothoracic spiracles; in the smaller but deeper anal cavity ; and 
 in the rim of this cavity having the twelve tubercles more conspicuous. The 
 pupa also has the anal cavity smaller, more closed, but deeper; and the prothoracic 
 spiracles less prominent. In these respects it agrees more closely with the typical 
 carnaria, as described by Packard, and I have little doubt but all these difl'erences • 
 are simply varietal. 
 
Natural Enemies. 137 
 
 small, spiracular cavity, easily closed and having a smooth 
 nm : it contracts to a pupa, which is quite uniformly 
 rounded at each end. The Sarcophaga larva is more 
 truncate behind, with fleshy warts on the rim of the spirac- 
 ular cavity, and with a more tapering head : it contracts 
 to a pupa, which is also truncate behind, and more taper- 
 ing in-front, where the prothoracic spiracles show as they 
 never do in Tachina. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 HOW BEST TO PREVENT LOCUST INJURIES. 
 
 The means to be employed against the ravages of this 
 Insect in the more fertile country subject to its periodical 
 visitations, but in which it is not indigenous, may be 
 classed under five heads ; 1, Encouragement of natural 
 agencies ; 2, Artificial means of destroying the eggs ; 3, 
 Artificial means of desti'oying the unfledged young ; 4, 
 Remedies against the mature or winged insects ; 5, Pre- 
 vention. 
 
 ENCOURAGEMENT OF NATURAL ENEMIES. 
 
 The natural enemies enumerated in Chapter VII should 
 be encouraged as far as it is possible to encourage them. 
 Man can do little to aid the multiplication of the more 
 minute animals and parasites, but much to assist that of 
 the larger animals, especially the birds mentioned. These 
 should be protected by stringent laws, firmly carried out, 
 restraining the wanton destruction in which sportsmen so 
 often indulge. During the past few years, several of the 
 " Western " States have passed good laws for the protec- 
 tion of our feathered friends, but the laws are often a dead- 
 letter for want of enforcement. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE EGGS. 
 
 The fact that man can accomplish most in his warfare 
 against locusts by destroying the eggs has long been 
 
 (139) 
 
140 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 recognized by European and Asiatic governments liable to 
 suffer from the insects. The eggs, as we have seen, are 
 laid in masses, just beneath the surface of the ground, 
 seldom to a greater depth than an inch ; and high, dry 
 ground is preferred for the purpose. Very often the ground 
 is so completely filled with these egg-masses, that not a 
 spoonful of the soil can be turned up without exposing 
 them, and a harrowing or shallow plowing will cause the 
 surface to look quite whitish as the masses break up aind 
 bleach from exposure to the atmosphere. Great numbers 
 will be destroyed by such harrowing or plowing, as there- 
 by not only are they more liable to the attacks of natural 
 enemies, but they lose vitality through the bleaching 
 and desiccating influence of the dew and rain and sun. 
 Wherever hogs and cattle can be turned into fields where 
 the eggs abound, most of these will be destroyed by the 
 rooting and tramping. 
 
 EXPERIMENTS WITH THE EGGS, AND CONCLUSIONS DRAWN 
 THEREFROM. 
 
 There are many questions respecting the manner in which 
 the eggs of this locust are affected under different condi- 
 tions, which are of intense practical interest, and which are 
 frequently discussed with no definite result being arrived 
 at, and no positive conclusion drawn. Such are, for 
 instance, the influence of temperature, moisture and dry- 
 ness upon them; the effects of exposing them to the air, 
 of breaking open the pods, of harrowing or plowing them 
 under at different depths, of tramping upon them. Every- 
 thing, in short, that may tend to destroy them or prevent 
 the young locusts hatching, is of vital importance. With 
 a view of settling some of these questions, and in the hope 
 of reaching conclusions that might prove valuable, I carried 
 on, during the past winter, a series of experiments, some 
 
Practical Considerations. 141 
 
 of which are herewith summed up. By reference to the 
 meteorological table given on p. 152, the exact temperature 
 at any of the dates mentioned, up to March 10, can be 
 ascertained. 
 
 Experiments to test the Effects of alternately 
 Freezing and Thawing. — The eggs in the following 
 series of exj^eriments were obtained early in November, 
 at Manhattan, Kansas, under similar conditions. They 
 were mostly in a fluid state at the time, and none but 
 good and perfect masses were used. They were all 
 carefully placed in the normal position at the surface 
 of the ground, in boxes that could be easily removed 
 from place to place. The experiments commenced No- 
 vember 10th, 1876, and ended in April, 1877. Dur- 
 ing November and December the weather was severe, 
 while during January and February it was largely mild 
 and genial for the season. In March again there was much 
 frost. 
 
 The temperature in my office, into which all the eggs 
 when not exposed were brought, ranged during the day 
 from 65° to 70° F., rarely reaching to 75°. During the 
 night it never dropped below 40°, and averaged about 55°. 
 
 Experiment 1. — Fifty egg-masses were exposed to frost from 
 November 10th to Jamiary 10th, and then taken in-doors. In twenty 
 days they commenced hatching, and continued to do so for thirty- 
 eight days thereafter. 
 
 Experiment 2. — Fifty egg-masses exposed at the same time to 
 frost. Brought in-doors on December 10th. On December 31st they 
 commenced hatching numerously and continued to hatch till the 
 10th of January, 1877, when the remainder were exposed again. 
 The weather being subsequently mild, some hatched on each warm 
 day until the 26th. None hatched thereafter, and upon examina- 
 tion, subsequently, all were found to have hatched. 
 
 Experiment 3. — Fifty egg-masses exposed at same time. Brought 
 in-doors December 1st. Kept there till the 22d without any of them 
 
142 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 hatching. Exposed again for three weeks, and then brought in- 
 doors on the 12th of January. They commenced hatching two 
 days thereafter, and continued till the 29th. Subsequent exam- 
 ination showed them all to have hatched. 
 
 Experiment 4. — One hundred egg-pods exposed at the same time, 
 but alternately brought in-doors and exposed again every fourteen 
 days. Some commenced hatching during the second term in- doors; 
 others continued during the warm days of the third exposure, and 
 all had hatched by the sixth day of the third term in-doors. 
 
 Experiment 5. — A lot of one hundred egg-masses alternately ex- 
 posed and brought in-doors every week. During the first four terms 
 of exposure they were continuously frozen, while during the next 
 four the weather was frequently mild enough to permit hatching. 
 They first began to hatch during the fourth term in-doors, and con- 
 tinued to hatch, except during the colder days when exposed, until 
 the seventh term in-doors, during which the last ones escaped. 
 
 Experiment 6. — Many hundred egg-masses kept out-doors the 
 whole time, first commenced hatching March 2d, and continued 
 for thirty-eight days thereafter. 
 
 Experiment 7. — Many hundred pods, kept in-doors till December 
 15th, and hatching from November 28th up to that time, were then 
 exposed, and continued to hatch whenever the weather permitted, 
 up to April 10th. 
 
 Experiment 8. — A lot of one hundred pods that had been hatching 
 in-doors from November 19lh, were exposed to frost January 15th, 
 and brought in-doors again January 28th, where they continued 
 hatching till February 10th. Every one was subsequently found 
 to have hatched. 
 
 Experiment 9. — A lot of one hundred under same conditions as 
 in Experiment 8, up to January 28th. They were then exposed 
 again and brought in-doors February 16th, when they commenced 
 hatching and continued to do so till the 27th. All were found sub- 
 sequently to have hatched. 
 
 Two important conclusions are deducible from the above 
 experiments : 
 
 First — The eggs are far less susceptible to alternate freez- 
 ing and thawing than most of us, from analogy, have been 
 inclined to believe. Those who have paid attention to the 
 
Practical Considerations. 143 
 
 aixbject, know full well that the large proportion of insects 
 that hibernate on or in the ground, are more injuriously 
 affected by a mild, alternately freezing and thawing winter, 
 than by a steadily cold and severe one ; and the idea has 
 quite generally prevailed, that it was the same- with regard 
 to our locust eggs. But, if so, then it is more owing to the 
 mechanical action which, by alternate expansion and con- 
 traction of the soil, heaves the pods and exposes them, 
 than to the effects of the varying temperatures. 
 
 Second — That suspended development by frost may 
 continue with impunity for varying periods, after the em- 
 bryon is fully formed and the young insect is on the verge 
 of hatching. Many persons, having in mind the well 
 known fact that birds' eggs become addled if incubation 
 ceases before completion, when once commenced, would, 
 from analogy, come to the same conclusion with regard to 
 the locust eggs. But analogy here is an unsafe guide. 
 The eggs of insects hibernate in all stages of embryonic 
 development, and many of them with the larva fully formed 
 and complete within. The advanced development of the 
 locust embryo, frequently noticed in the fall, argues nothing 
 but very early hatching as soon as spring opens. Their 
 vitality is unimpaired by frost. 
 
 Experiments to test the Influence of Moisture upon 
 THE Eggs. — The following series of experiments was made 
 with eggs also bi-ought from Manhattan, Kansas. They 
 were dug up in December, and were sound, and much in the 
 same condition as those in the preceding series. - 
 
 The water in all but the last three, or Experiments 23, 
 24 and 25, was kept in my office at the temperature already 
 stated, and changed only when there was the least tendency 
 to become foul. In the alternate submergence and draining, 
 the eggs were submitted to the most severe hygrometric 
 
144 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locnist. 
 
 changes ; the warm atmosphere of the room liaving great 
 drying power. 
 
 Expenment 10. — Ten egg-masses kept uuder water in-doors from 
 December 5tli to December 26th, 1876, the water becoming quite 
 foul. They were then removed to earth and kept in a hatching 
 temperature. They commenced hatching January 11th, 1877, and 
 continued to do so till February 5th — all having hatched. 
 
 Experiment 11. — Twenty egg-masses kept under water in-doors 
 from December 26th, 1876, till January 2d, 1877 ; then left dry till 
 the 9th ; then submerged again till the 16th, when they were drained 
 again. On the 20th, eighteen young hatched, and others continued 
 hatching till the 23d, when they were submerged again. From the 
 26th to 30th, a few hatched under water, successfully getting rid of 
 the post-natal pellicle, and living for some hours afterward in the 
 water. On the 30th they were drained again, and continued to 
 hatch. On February 6th, they were again immersed, and continued 
 to hatch on the 7th. On the 15th, 22d, 29th, and March 7th, they 
 were alternately drained and immersed ; but none hatched after 
 February 7th, and the remainder proved upon examination to have 
 been destroyed, most of them being quite rotten. 
 
 Experiment 12. — Two egg-masses taken from the lot in Experi- 
 ment 11, on February 7th, and placed in moist earth. Every egg 
 subsequently hatched. 
 
 Experiment 13. — Two egg-masses taken from the lot in Experi- 
 ment 11, on February 22d, and placed in moist earth. All hatched. 
 
 Experiment 14. — Twenty egg-masses alternately immersed and 
 drained every two weeks from December 26th till March 6lh. None 
 hatched, but three-fourths of the eggs were at this date sound, 
 the embryon full-formed and active as soon as released, but pale, 
 and evidently too feeble to burst the egg-shell. The rest were 
 killed and more or less decomposed. 
 
 Experiment 15. — Two egg-masses, after immersion for two weeks, 
 were placed in moist earth. They began hatching twenty-two days 
 afterward, and continued to do so for six days. It was subsequently 
 found that onl}'^ seven out of forty-eight eggs had collapsed and 
 failed to hatch. 
 
 Experiment 16. — Two egg-masses immersed for two weeks and 
 drained for two weeks; then placed in moist earth. Six days after- 
 ward they commenced hatching, and continued to do so for two 
 
Practical Considerations. 145 
 
 days. Subsequently examined, twenty-eight out of fifty-four eggs 
 had perished. 
 
 Experiment 17. — Two egg-masses alternately immersed, drained, 
 and immersed again every two weeks, were placed in moist earth. 
 They commenced hatching two days afterward, and continued to 
 do so for twelve days. Upon subsequent examination, twenty-three 
 out of fifty-two had perished. 
 
 Experiment 18. — Twenty egg-masses immersed from Dec. 26th, 
 1876, to Jan. 16th, 1877; then drained till Feb. 6th; then immersed 
 till Feb. 27th; then drained again. On Feb. 3d, while dry, they 
 commenced hatching numerously, and a few continued for two days 
 to hatch while immersed. An examination March 7th, showed 
 about half of them still alive, the rest rotten. On March 27th they 
 were drained again, but none subsequently hatched — all having 
 rotted and dried up. 
 
 Experiment 18a. — Two masses in same conditions as in Expt. 18 
 till Feb. 27th, were placed in moist earth and all the eggs hatched 
 March 7—12. 
 
 Experiment 19. — Twenty egg-masses immersed from Dec. 26th, 
 1876, to Jan. 23d, 1877; then drained till Feb. 20th; then submerged 
 again. They commenced hatching on the 6th of Feb., and con- 
 tinued two days after the second submergence. On the 7th of 
 March but about five per cent, had rotted. On March 20th they 
 were drained again, but none subsequently hatched, except five 
 eggs from two pods at once placed in earth. 
 
 Experiment 20. — Two egg-masses immersed for four weeks; then 
 drained for two weeks; then immersed for one week; then placed 
 in moist earth. They commenced hatching seven days afterward, 
 and continued to do so for six days. Subsequently examined, one 
 of the masses was rotten; the eggs in the other had all hatched. 
 
 Experiment 21. — Twenty egg-masses kept from Dec. 26th, 1876, 
 in earth saturated with moisture. On Feb. 23d, 1877, they com- 
 menced hatching, and continued to do so till March 7th, when all 
 were found to have hatched, except one pod, which was rotten. 
 
 Experiment 22. — Twenty egg-masses, alternately placed every 
 five days, from Dec. 26th, 1876, in earth saturated with moisture 
 and in earth which was very dry. Commenced hatching Feb. 14th, 
 and continued till March 7th, when, upon examination, all had 
 hatched, except nine of the pods, which were rotten. 
 
 Experiment 23. — Twenty egg-masses immersed and exposed 
 10 
 
146 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 out-doors Dec. 26th, 1876. From that time till April 9th, the water 
 was frozen and completely thawed at nine different times, the ves- 
 sel containing them, which was of glass and admitted the sunlight, 
 several times breaking. The changes were as follows: Frozen till 
 Jan. 10th; then thawed till the 12th; then frozen till the 18th; then 
 thawed till the 20th; then frozen till the 26th; then thawed till Feb. 
 20th; then partly frozen till the 22d; then thawed till the 26th; 
 then frozen till the 27th; then thawed till March 5th; then frozen till 
 March 10th; then thawed till March 15th; then frozen till the 16th; 
 then thawed till the 24th; then frozen till the 25th. Examined on 
 the 7tli of March only one pod was found rotten; the others appar- 
 ently sound. On the 9th of April, all with the exception of twelve 
 eggs were found rotten, the masses having become disintegrated 
 and the eggs for the most part lying singly at the bottom. 
 
 Experiment 24. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as 
 in Expt. 23, till Feb. 9th, when they were brought in-doors and 
 placed in earth. One was dried up on the 16th; the other com- 
 menced hatching on the 27th, and when examined on March 7th, 
 all the eggs in it were found to have hatched. 
 
 Experiment 25. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as in 
 Expt. 23, till Feb. 27th, when they were placed in earth in-doors. 
 Examined March 7th, they were found sound, and near the hatch- 
 ing point. On March 20th they commenced hatching. 
 
 Experiment 25a. — Two egg-masses, under same conditions as 
 in Expt. 23, up to March 6th, were then placed in earth in-doors. 
 They commenced hatching March 23d, and continued till April 3d. 
 Subsequently examined, but eight out of the fifty-four eggs were 
 shrunken and dead. 
 
 Experiment 25b. — Two egg-masses under same conditions as in 
 Expt. 23, up to March 27th, were then placed in earth, as above. 
 April 14th — 20th, ten hatched. Subsequently examined, the rest 
 were found rotten. 
 
 Experiment 25c. — The twelve eggs remaining April 9th, from 
 Expt. 23, were placed in earth. Five out of the twelve hatched 
 April 20th — 26th. The rest were subsequently found rotten. 
 
 These experiments establish a few facts that were some- 
 what unexpected. The insect is a denizen of the high and 
 arid regions of the Northwest, and has often been observed 
 to prefer dry and sunny places, and to avoid wet land, for 
 
Practical Considerations. 147 
 
 purposes of ovipositing. The belief that moisture was 
 prejudicial to the eggs, has, for these reasons, very gener- 
 ally prevailed. The power which they exhibit of retaining 
 vitality, and of hatching under water or in saturated 
 ground, is, therefore, very remarkable — the more so when 
 viewed in connection with the results obtained in the suc- 
 ceeding experiments. That the eggs should hatch after 
 several weeks submergence, and that the young insect 
 should even throw off the post-natal pellicle, was, to me, 
 quite a surprise, and argues a most wonderful toughness 
 and tenacity. After they had been dried and soaked for 
 over six weeks, under conditions that approach those of 
 spring, I found a good proportion of the eggs to contain 
 the full-formed and living young, which, though somewhat 
 shrunken, and evidently too weak to have made an exit, 
 were still capable of motion. The water evidently retards 
 hatching. An examination of the submerged eggs that 
 remained unhatched long after others had hatched, which 
 had been under similar treatment up to a certain time, and 
 then transferred to earth, showed all the parts to be unusu- 
 ally soft and flaccid. Yet, when once life has gone, the 
 e^g would seem to rot quicker in the water than in the 
 ground. 
 
 The results of Experiments 23 — 2oc prove conclusively 
 that water in winter time, when subject to be frozen, is 
 still less injurious to the eggs. 
 
 Altogether, these experiments give us very little encour- 
 agement as to the use of water as a destructive agent; 
 and we can readily understand how eggs may hatch out, 
 as they have been known to do, in marshy soil, or soil too 
 wet for the plow; or even from the bottom of ponds that 
 were overflowed during the winter and spring. While a 
 certain proportion of the eggs may be destroyed by alter- 
 nately soaking and drying the soil at short-repeated inter- 
 
148 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 vals, it is next to impossible to do this in practice during 
 the winter season as effectually as it was done in the 
 experiments ; and the only case in which water can be 
 profitably used is where the land can be flooded for a few 
 days just at the period when the bulk of the eggs are 
 hatching. 
 
 Experiments to test the Effects of Exposure to 
 THE Free Air. — The eggs in the following series were 
 obtained at Manhattan, Kansas, in November, and all 
 under similar conditions. 
 
 Experiment 26.— A large number of egg-masses were thoroughly 
 broken up and the single eggs scattered over the surface of the 
 ground out-doors early in December. By the 23d of Februaiy all 
 had perished, and most of them had collapsed and shriveled. 
 
 Experiinent 27. — A large number of pods were partly broken up 
 and exposed as in Expt. 26. On the 10th of March the outer eggs 
 were mostly dead and shrunken, but a few of the protected ones 
 were yet plump, the embryon well advanced and apparently sound. 
 Placed in earth they subsequently hatched. 
 
 Experiment 28. — A large number of unbroken pods were exposed 
 under similar conditions as in the preceding Expts. By March 
 10th fully three-fourths of the eggs had perished, and by April 1st 
 all had perished. 
 
 Experiment 29. — Fifty egg-masses were kept in-doors in an open- 
 mouthed bottle in perfectly loose and dry earth from November 
 6th. Fully eight per cent, of the eggs had hatched by December 
 28th, when hatching ceased, and a subsequent examination showed 
 the rest to have shrunken and perished. 
 
 It is very evident from the above experiments that we 
 can do much more to destroy the eggs by bringing into 
 requisition the universally utilizable air, than we can by 
 the use of water. The breaking up of the mass and 
 exposure of the individual eggs to the desiccating effects 
 of the atmosphere, effectually destroys them; and when to 
 
Practical Considerations. 149 
 
 this is added the well known fact that thus exposed they 
 are more liable to destruction by their numerous enemies, 
 we see at once the importance of this mode of coping with 
 the evil. 
 
 Experiments to test the Effects of Burying at 
 
 DIFFERENT DePTHS, AND OF PRESSING THE SoiL. The 
 
 following series of experiments was made with eggs 
 obtained at Manhattan, Kansas, early in November, and 
 similar in condition to those in the first series. Large tin 
 cylindrical boxes, made of difierent depths, and varying 
 from four to eight inches in diameter, were used ; and in 
 order to hasten the result they were kept in-doors at the 
 temperature already mentioned. The soil in all the boxes 
 was finely comminuted and kept in uniform and moderately 
 moist condition. It was gently pressed with the fingers, 
 80 as to approach in compactness the surface soil of a well 
 cultivated garden. In each instance the eggs were placed 
 in the center of the box, A large number of eggs were 
 buried at different depths out-doors where they were 
 under natural conditions of soil pressure and temperature. 
 The soil was a tolerably stiff yellow clay, and was pretty 
 well compacted by many heavy rains, after the frost was 
 thawed out. The results of the out-door experiments 
 comport with those made in the boxes. The eggs being 
 placed at every depth from one to eighteen inches, and 
 each batch covered with a wire screen, the result was accu- 
 rately determined. All at one inch below the surface 
 hatched ; about one-third of those at two inches managed 
 to escape, and none from any greater depth. Examined 
 May 12th, they had hatched down to a depth of twelve 
 inches, and worked their way upward, and horizontally, 
 seldom extending more than one inch in the former, or 
 more than two inches in the latter direction. Most of 
 
150 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 those at greater depths were at that time unhatched. In 
 looser soil, they would doubtless have managed to push 
 somewhat farther. 
 
 Experiment 30. — Ten egg-masses were placed just one inch be- 
 low the surface in the center of a box four inches in diameter. The 
 young began to appear January 30th, when it was noticed that 
 every one came up at the side of the box, between the earth and 
 the tin, where there was more or less shrinking of the former from 
 the latter. Upon pressing the earth more firmly around the border, 
 the issuing of the young ceased. Upon examining the eggs, March 
 7th, it was found that they had all hatched. A few of the young^ 
 were still alive, and endeavoring to escape ; the rest had died in the 
 effort. They had made no progress upward through the pressed 
 surface, but had pushed horizontally as the looser earth permitted. 
 
 Experiment 31, — From ten egg-masses, placed two inches be- 
 neath the surface, the young commenced issuing from the sides, 
 as in the preceding Expt., January 31st. None issued directly 
 through the surface of the soil, and none issued after the border 
 was pressed more firmly to the tin. Subsequent examination 
 showed the soil penetrated in devious directions, but none of the 
 insects had reached higher than within three-quarters of an inch of 
 the surface. 
 
 Experiment 32. — Ten egg-masses placed three inches below the 
 surface. The young began, January 31st, to issue from the sides, 
 as in Expts. 30, 31. Upon pressing the ground more firmly around 
 the borders, none afterwards issued, and subsequent examination 
 showed that the young had tunneled the earth in tortuous passages 
 toward the sides, and perished there; without reaching nearer than 
 within an inch of the surface in the middle of the box. 
 
 Experiment 33. — Ten egg-masses placed six inches below the 
 surface. On February 1st, the young commenced to issue, as in the 
 preceding Expts., from the side, and continued to do so till the 
 4th, when the earth was pressed more closely to the tin. None 
 issued afterwards. Subsequent examination showed that some had 
 succeeded in working their way upward through the soil to within 
 two inches of the surface ; but most had reached the sides, and. 
 there collected and perished between the tin and the soil. 
 
 Other experiments made in glass tubes where the move- 
 ments of the insects could be watched, all produced results 
 
Practical Considerations. 151 
 
 similar to those above given ; and all point to the conclu- 
 sion that where the newly-hatched insect has not the 
 natural channel of exit (described on p, 72) which was pre- 
 pared by the mother, it must inevitably perish if the soil 
 be moderately compact, unless cracks, fissures, or other 
 channels reaching to the surface are at hand. 
 
 From the above four series of experiments, I would 
 draw the following deductions, which have important 
 practical bearing : 
 
 First — Frost has no injurious effect on the eggs ; its 
 influence is beneficial rather, in weakening the outer shell. 
 
 Second — Alternate freezing and thawing is far less inju- 
 rious to them than we have hitherto supposed, and tends 
 to their destruction, if at all, indirectly, by exposing them 
 to the free air. 
 
 Third — The breaking open of the egg-masses, and ex- 
 posure of the eggs to the atmosphere, is the most effectual 
 way of destroying them. Hence the importance of har- 
 rowing in the fall is obvious. 
 
 Fourth — Moisture has altogether less effect on the vital- 
 ity of the eggs than has heretofore been supposed, and 
 will be of little use as a destructive agent, except where 
 land can be overflowed for two or three days at the time 
 when the bulk of the young are hatching. 
 
 Fifth — Plowing under of the eggs will be effectual in 
 destroying them, just in proportion as the ground is af'ter- 
 ward harrowed and rolled. Its effects will also necessarily 
 vary with the nature of the soil. Other things being equal, 
 fall plowing will have the advantage over spring plowing, 
 not only in retarding the hatching period, but in permit- 
 ting the settling and compacting of the soil ; while where 
 the ground is afterwards harrowed and rolled, the spring 
 plowing will prove just as good, and on light soils perhaps 
 better. 
 
152 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 TEMPERATURE AT ST. LOUIS, MO., OP WINTER OP 1876--7. 
 
 1876. 
 
 Max 
 
 Min 
 
 Mean 
 
 1877. 
 
 Max. 
 
 Min. 
 
 Mi:aD. 
 
 November 15 
 
 16 
 
 41 
 U 
 47 
 47 
 36 
 45 
 47 
 42 
 45 
 51 
 47 
 38 
 43 
 39 
 33 
 27 
 20 
 2» 
 29 
 34 
 45 
 47 
 47 
 40 
 11 
 37 
 55 
 60 
 50 
 38 
 45 
 44 
 27 
 22 
 37 
 •43 
 43 
 37 
 21 
 19 
 21 
 21 
 24 
 26 
 19 
 21 
 U 
 
 24 
 2t 
 26 
 42 
 42 
 43 
 35 
 13 
 28 
 35 
 
 30 
 35 
 40 
 25 
 22 
 31 
 32 
 23 
 31 
 3i 
 81 
 30 
 31 
 23 
 27 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 12 
 24 
 24 
 83 
 31 
 
 3 
 —5 
 
 9 
 23 
 36 
 38 
 18 
 12 
 
 4 
 13 
 
 2 
 18 
 23 
 23 
 20 
 13 
 
 n 
 
 13 
 13 
 15 
 
 13 
 4 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 8 
 11 
 19 
 29 
 32 
 13 
 -4 
 1 
 21 
 
 37 
 
 39 
 41 
 31 
 32 
 38 
 37 
 33 
 ■ 36 
 41 
 40 
 34 
 39 
 28 
 29 
 16 
 14 
 16 
 23 
 30 
 3^1 
 3^ 
 S9 
 15 
 5 
 31 
 44 
 48 
 42 
 27 
 36 
 12 
 20 
 16 
 2S 
 33 
 ?4 
 26 
 19 
 15 
 18 
 13 
 21 
 21 
 IJ 
 15 
 24 
 
 14 
 15 
 21 
 33 
 £6 
 37 
 21 
 
 19 
 31 
 
 January 11 
 
 12 
 
 52 
 32 
 27 
 3» 
 43 
 23 
 40 
 46 
 50 
 46 
 37 
 87 
 32 
 31 
 48 
 51 
 50 
 57 
 57 
 65 
 66 
 69 
 E6 
 48 
 46 
 40 
 49 
 53 
 47 
 EO 
 58 
 58 
 52 
 36 
 44 
 53 
 47 
 50 
 66 
 58 
 48 
 65 
 53 
 44 
 33 
 33 
 43 
 48 
 50 
 47 
 47 
 49 
 S2 
 40 
 55 
 57 
 55 
 23 
 41 
 
 32 
 14 
 10 
 22 
 23 
 9 
 20 
 35 
 39 
 21 
 19 
 23 
 10 
 19 
 22 
 32 
 31 
 33 
 38 
 48 
 53 
 50 
 44 
 35 
 32 
 28 
 34 
 38 
 36 
 33 
 37 
 42 
 29 
 28 
 30 
 31' 
 33 
 34 
 31 
 31 
 27 
 34 
 44 
 33 
 29 
 28 
 28 
 28 
 32 
 39 
 37 
 18 
 14 
 26 
 30 
 36 
 
 16 
 
 40 
 
 19 
 
 17 
 
 13 
 
 22 
 
 •> 18 
 
 14 
 
 31 
 
 19 
 
 15 
 
 33 
 
 20 
 
 16.. 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 21 
 
 33 
 
 22 
 
 18 
 
 42 
 
 23 
 
 19 
 
 45 
 
 24 
 
 2i 
 
 26 
 
 20 
 
 21 
 
 22 
 
 22 
 32 
 26 
 
 27 
 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 •' 23 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 
 29 
 
 25 
 
 36 
 
 30 
 
 26 
 
 39 
 
 
 27 
 
 41 
 
 2 
 
 28 
 
 47 
 
 3 
 
 29 
 
 49 
 
 4 
 
 30 
 
 31 
 
 S7 
 
 5 
 
 59 
 
 6 
 
 February 1 
 
 59 
 
 7 
 
 
 49 
 
 8 • 
 
 3 
 
 37 
 
 9 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 33 
 41 
 
 12 
 
 
 46 
 
 13 
 
 8 
 
 42 
 
 14 
 
 9 
 
 44 
 
 15 
 
 10 
 
 48 
 
 16 
 
 11 
 
 52 
 
 17 
 
 12 
 
 32 
 
 18 
 
 13 
 
 33 
 
 19 
 
 14 
 
 38 
 
 20 
 
 15. 
 
 44 
 
 21 
 
 16 
 
 40 
 
 22 
 
 17 
 
 42 
 
 23 
 
 18 
 
 S3 
 
 24 
 
 19 
 
 b7 
 
 25 
 
 20 
 
 39 
 
 26 
 
 21 
 
 51 
 
 27 
 
 22 
 
 47 
 
 28 
 
 23 
 
 - 24 
 
 38 
 
 29 
 
 82 
 
 30 
 
 ■• 25 
 
 31 
 
 31.:::::::;::.. 
 
 26 
 
 37 
 
 
 
 40 
 
 1877. 
 
 28 
 
 43 
 
 
 March 1 
 
 43 
 
 
 2 
 
 3 . . 
 
 39 
 
 
 29 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 26 
 
 4 
 
 
 34 
 
 5 
 
 " 6 
 
 46 
 
 6 
 
 
 47 
 
 
 8 
 
 23 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 13 
 
 9-. 
 
 10 
 
 31 
 
 10 
 
 
 
Practical Considerations. 153 
 
 HARROWING IX FALL. 
 
 So satisfied have I been for some time that systematic 
 harrowing of the eggs, or their exposure by other means, 
 in the fall, is the best work that can be done, that I have 
 earnestly urged its enforcement by law whenever the soil 
 in any township is known to be well charged with eggs. 
 A revolving harrow or cultivator will do excellent work, 
 not only in the field, but in the road-ways and other un- 
 cultivated places, where the eggs may be laid. The more 
 the soil is pulverized, after being broken up, the better. 
 
 COLLECTING THE EGGS. 
 
 The eggs are sometimes placed where neither harrowing 
 nor plowing can be employed. In such cases, they should 
 be collected and destroyed by the inhabitants, and the 
 State should offer some inducement in the way of bounty 
 for such collection and destruction. Every bushel of eggs 
 destroyed is equivalent to a hundred acres of corn saved, 
 and when we consider the amount of destruction caused 
 by the young, and that the ground is often known to be 
 filled with eggs ; that, in other words, the earth is sown 
 with the seeds of future destruction, it is surprising that 
 such bounty laws have not been more generally enacted. 
 A few thousand dollars taken out of the State treasury 
 for this purpose would be well spent, and be distributed 
 among the very people most in need of assistance. 
 
 PLOWING. 
 
 Plowing the eggs under deeply, destroys them either en- 
 tirely or in great part, and if some survive, the young hatch 
 so late the next season, that their power for harm is much 
 lessened. Care should be taken not to bring the eggs 
 turned under in autumn to the surface again, by plowing 
 
154 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 the same land the following spring ; for, thns brought ta 
 the surface, the eggs more often hatch. 
 
 The experience as to deep plowing under of the eggs is 
 somewhat conflicting, and in some light, dry soils, a good 
 number of them will hatch late if turned under a foot ; yet, 
 from my own observations, and a vast amount of experi- 
 ence gathered together, I recommend it as profitable. If 
 delayed till spring, it should be done just as the young 
 begin to hatch, as it is then most effectual. The plowing 
 will be effectual according as the soil is porous or tenacious, 
 and according us the surface is aftericard compressed by 
 harrowing and rolling. From the experiments already 
 recorded, it is obvious that, all other things being equal, 
 a plowing of four to six inches will prove more effectual 
 in spring, if the ground be subsequently harrowed and 
 rolled, than deeper plowing with no subsequent comminu- 
 tion and compression. 
 
 IRRIGATION TRAMPING. 
 
 Where the ground is light and porous, excessive and 
 continued moisture will cause most of the eggs to perish ; 
 and irrigation, or alternate submersion and drying of such 
 land, will likewise prove beneficial. It is less useful, how- 
 ever, than is generally supposed, and on tenacious soils 
 will have little effect. 
 
 Wherever hogs or cattle can be turned into the fields 
 where the eggs abound, most of these will be destroyed 
 by the rooting and tramping. All these means are obvi- 
 ously insufficient, however, for the reason that the eggs 
 are too often placed where none of them can be employed. 
 
 In such cases, they should be collected and destroyed by 
 the inhabitants, and the bounty laws, presently to be con- 
 sidered, are useful in this connection. 
 
Practical Considerations. 155 
 
 DESTKUCTION OF THE YOUNG OR UNFLEDGED LOCUSTS. 
 
 Next to the destruction of the eggs, the destruction of 
 the young or unfledged locusts is most within man's 
 power. The means of accomplishing this result necessarily 
 vary somewhat with the nature of the soil and of the 
 crops. For convenience, they may be classified into : 
 1, burning; 2, crushing; 3, trapping; 4, catching; 5, the 
 icse of destructive agents. 
 
 1. ^timing. — In a prairie and wheat-growing country, 
 like much of that which this locust devastates, and where 
 there is always an abundance of old straw, burning is per- 
 haps the best means of warfare against the young. These, 
 for some time after they hatch, may be driven into wind- 
 rows or heaps of straw scattered around and through a 
 field, and burned. During cold, damp weather, they will, 
 of their own accord, congregate under such shelter, and 
 may sometimes be exterminated by burning, where no 
 driving is necessary. As to burning the praii-ie in the 
 spring, while there is much to be said ^j»ro and con, it is, 
 all things considered, beneficial in this connection. 
 Scarcely any eggs are laid in rank prairie, and the impres- 
 sion that locusts are slaughtered by myriads in burning 
 extensive areas, is a false one. This practice is beneficial 
 principally around cultivated fields and roadsides, from 
 which the locusts may be driven, or from which they will 
 of themselves pass for the shelter the prairie affords. 
 
 The burning of extensive prairies, after the bulk of the 
 locusts hatch, destroys the nests and eggs of some game 
 birds which feed upon the locusts, but the birds themselves 
 always escape and nest again ; whereas many noxious in- 
 sects, like the chinch bug, are killed ; so that, even leaving 
 the locust question out of consideration, the burning would 
 yet prove advantageous to man. 
 
156 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 It is beneficial in proportion as it is delayed, because the 
 locusts, as they develop, disperse more and more from 
 their hatching grounds into the prairie. 
 
 In Colorado, machines for burning have been used to 
 good advantage. Mr. J. Hetzel, of Longmont, uses a 
 burner drawn by horses. It is twelve feet long, two to 
 two and one-half feet wide, made of iron, and set on run- 
 ners four inches high. An open grate on the top of the run- 
 ners is filled with pitch-pine wood, and a metal sheet covers 
 the grate to keep the heat down. The grate is generally 
 made with a network of heavy wire, such as telegraph- 
 wire. Two men and a team will burn ten to twelve acres 
 a day, and kill two-thirds of the insects, but it requires a 
 hot fire. Mr. C. C. Horner gives, in the Colorado Farmer, 
 the following more detailed description of a machine 
 which works on the same principle : 
 
 It consists of three runners made of 2 x 4 scantling three feet in 
 length, to be placed six feet apart, making the machine twelve feet 
 wide ; runners to be bound together by three flat straps or bars of 
 iron (the base being twelve feet long.) Across the top, bars of iron 
 hold the runners firmly together, and form a frame across which 
 wire can be worked, to make a grate to hold fire. The upper part 
 of the runners should be hollowed out so that the grate may slide 
 along within two inches of the ground. A sheet-iron arch should 
 be set over this grate to drive the heat downward. This machine 
 is very light, and can be worked with one horse. Pitch-wood is 
 best adapted to burning, and can be chopped the right length and 
 size and left in piles where most convenient when needed. This 
 machine is intended to be used when the httle hoppers just make 
 their appearance along the edge of the grain, going over the 
 ground once or twice each day, or as often as necessary to keep 
 them killed off. The scorching does not kill the grain, but makes 
 it a few days later. This is certainly the cheapest as well as the 
 most effectual manner of getting rid of this pest. 
 
 A hand burner, consisting of any form of pan or grate, 
 to hold combustible material, and attached to a handle, 
 will do excellent service in gardens and small enclosures. 
 
 Long wire or iron rods, wrapped in rags saturated with 
 
Practical Considerations. 157 
 
 kerosene, and then ignited and carried over a field, near 
 the ground, will slaughter large numbers. 
 
 2. Crushing. — This can be resorted to with advantage 
 only in exceptional cases, where the ground is smooth and 
 hard. Heavy rolling, where the surface of the soil is 
 sufficiently firm and even, destroys a large number of 
 the newly-hatched young, but is most advantageously 
 employed when they are most sluggish and inclined to 
 huddle together, as during the first eight or ten days after 
 hatching, and in the mornings and evenings subsequently. 
 In many parts of Europe and Asia, flat, wooden, spade- 
 like implements are extensively used for this purpose. 
 
 3. Trapping. — This is very effectual, especially when 
 the insects are making their way into a field from roads 
 and hedge-sides. The use of nets or seines, or converging 
 strips of calico or any other material, made after the plan 
 of a quail-net, has proved most satisfactory. By digging 
 a pit, or boring a post-auger hole three or four feet deep, 
 and then staking the two wings so that they converge to- 
 ward it, large numbers of the locusts may be driven into 
 the pit after the dew is off the ground, or may be headed 
 off when marching in a given direction. By changing the 
 position of this trap, much good can be done when the 
 insects are yet small and concentrated in particular spots. 
 
 Ditching or trenching will come under this head ; and 
 after the insects have commenced to travel in schools, 
 proper ditching is the most effectual protection to crops. 
 This is especially true where, as was the case in much of 
 the ravaged country in 1875, thei-e is little or no hay or 
 straw to burn ; or when the crops have grown to such a size 
 as prevents the use of some of the destructive agents men- 
 tioned further on. A ditch two feet wide and two feet 
 deep, with perpendicular sides, offers an effectual barrier 
 to the young insects. It must, however, be kept in proper 
 
158 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 order, so that the side next the field to be protected is 
 not allowed to wash out or become too hard. It may be 
 kept friable by brush or rake. They tumble into such a 
 ditch and accumulate, and die at the bottom in large quan- 
 tities. In a few days the stench becomes great, and neces- 
 sitates the covering up of the mass. In order to keep the 
 main ditch open, therefore, it is best to dig pits or deeper 
 side ditches at short intervals, in which the hoppers will 
 accumulate and may be buried. If a trench is made around 
 a field about hatching time, but few hoppers will get into 
 that field till they acquire wings, and by that time the 
 principal danger is over, and the insects are fast disap- 
 pearing. If any should hatch within the inclosure, they 
 are easily driven into the ditches dug in diflerent parts of 
 the field. The direction of the apprehended approach of 
 the insects being known from their hatching locality, 
 ditching one or two sides next to such locality is generally 
 sufticient, and when farmers join they can construct a long 
 ditch which will protect many farms. 
 
 I have not a doubt but that with proper and systematic 
 ditching early in the season, when the insects first hatch, 
 nearly everything can be saved. 
 
 Just behind the fair-grounds at Kansas City, Mo., there 
 is an intelligent and industrious gardener, Mr. F. D. Ad- 
 kins, who, in 1875, had about three acres in vegetables. 
 The locusts hatched in large numbers all around Kansas 
 City, and nowhere more abundantly than in the imme- 
 diate vicinity of this truck-garden. Mr. Adkins, remem- 
 bering his experience with the same plague in 1867, perse- 
 vered in ditching for their destruction in 1875; and though 
 the surface of the country for miles and miles around was 
 desolate, yet this little three-acre field was untouched — a 
 perfect oasis in the desert, at once giving pleasure to the 
 eye, and speaking eloquently of what may be accomplished 
 
Practical Considerations. 159 
 
 by a little tact and perseverance. Numerous other instances 
 of this kind might be given. I have seen people driving off 
 the young locusts day after day, in their endeavors to save 
 some small vegetable or flower garden — their efforts 
 eventually in vain — where one-tenth the time spent in 
 ditching would have effectually accomplished the object. 
 And when I should, perhaps, have been praying, I have 
 witnessed sights that prompted to thought and word the 
 very reverse of prayer. In a large portion of Johnson 
 county, Mo., the injury in 1875 was slight, and until the 
 end of May little damage was done around Warrensburg, 
 Happening to be in the vicinity of this town on the 3d of 
 June, I came upon a beautiful vineyard which had up to 
 that time escaped. The insects had got into it, and the 
 owner was advised to ditch to save it. His piety exceeded 
 his good sense, however, and instead of genuflecting on a 
 spade he was performing the operation in another way, 
 while his beautiful vineyard was being destroyed at so 
 speedy a rate that it would not show a green leaf by the 
 morrow. I respect every man's faith, but there are in- 
 stances where I would respect his work a good deal more. 
 
 Where the soil is tenacious, and water can be let into 
 the ditches so as to cover the bottom, they may be made 
 shallower, and still be effective. Mr. Frank Holsinger, of 
 Kansas City, under date of May 23rd, 1875, sent me the 
 following account of his experience; 
 
 Your very interesting communication to the St. Louis Qlohe was 
 reproduced in our Journalof Commerce on the 21st iust. I have no 
 doubt hut tliat your counsel will be heeded by many, but to the 
 mass of our people it is as " sounding brass," etc. During the past 
 four days I have been at worlt, and although I spent less than one- 
 fourth of my time to the purpose,! have destroyed between thirty and 
 forty bushels of wingless locusts. My remedy is so simple I con- 
 cluded to give it to you, as I think it better than any I have j'et 
 seen, and had I known how easy it was to accomplish I would 
 now see growing crops where ruin and desolation appear. 
 
 As they had entered my wheat (I took your advice and fall- 
 
160 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 plowed everything, and I do not think there was a hatful hatched 
 on my forty acres) from neighboring farms, and knowing that wlien 
 they got through they must move in force on my garden, I cautioned 
 my wife to inform me when they commenced on this last. On the 
 18th inst., at 11 a. M. , she gave the watch-word, " they come;" so, 
 leaving corn-plowing, I hastened to surround our garden with a 
 board fence, intending to drive the insects around, but to no pur- 
 pose, although the boards were placed at 45° outward, and some six 
 of us were at work. Still they came. We built straw $res next — 
 still unsatisfactory. I had been underdraining, and had some drains 
 still open. Wife said, '' you will work yourself sick, and all to no 
 purpose." I took a look, and a patch of early potatoes, one-third 
 of an acre, which we had saved, was melting before them. I then 
 saw them march straight for the drain. My impulse then was to 
 burn them in the drain. This I found difficult. The next thought 
 was "pit-falls at intervals in the drain." I commenced digging 
 these, and the locusts tumbled in by thousands, but many escaped. 
 Now the thought occurred that if there was water in the pits they 
 could not jump; so water was thrown in, and the result was a suc- 
 cess. I feel certain that by a judicious expenditure of $50, in ditch- 
 ing around my thirty-five acres, I could have saved everything, 
 while my loss is lai'gely in excess of $1,000. 
 
 The width and depth of the ditch is important, and as ex- 
 perience differed somewhat I have been at pains to get the 
 experience of a large number of correspondents addressed 
 by circular. Many have successfully used ditches two feet 
 deep and eighteen inches wide; a few have made them only 
 1 8 in. X 1 8 in. ; those who have used water found 1 2 in. x 1 5 in. 
 sufficient, while the larger number used a ditch such as I have 
 recommended, viz., two feet deep by two feet wide, with per- 
 pendicular sides. Having been the first to recommend 
 proper ditching in this country, I have felt particular inter- 
 est in its results, and have been in no small degree amused at 
 the fault found with my recommendation, by those who, 
 through slovenly-made ditches or other causes, have not 
 been successful in this mode of warfare. It is less effectual 
 against the newly-hatched young, which more easily crawl 
 up a perpendicular bank than the larger ones, and its effi- 
 cacy will vary with the nature of the soil and other cir- 
 cumstances ; for, in proportion as the soil is loose, and 
 ditches hence apt to fill up by the action of strong winds, 
 
Practical Considerations. 161 
 
 or in proportion as strong winds carry the insects over, 
 ditching will necessarily fail. 
 
 Those who, from theory rather than from experience, are 
 skeptical about the efficacy of ditching, urge that the lo- 
 cust, especially in the pupa state, can hop more than two 
 feet. In truth, however, whether when traveling in a 
 given direction of their own accord, or when being driven 
 or disturbed, they very seldom leap that distance, as all who 
 have had experience well know. That, on a pinch, the 
 pupa can leap even farther, is true ; but the fact remains 
 that in practice, Caloptenus spretus seldom does. So the 
 chinch bug, though capable of flight, will yet tumble into 
 a ditch by myriads rather than use its wings. Even the 
 larger winged Acridia and CEdipodce tumble into such a 
 ditch, and seldom get out again. I would remark in this 
 connection, also, that a ditch three feet wide, unless cor- 
 respondingly deep, will be more apt to permit the insects 
 to escape, when once in, than a narrower one. In hopping, 
 the more perpendicular the direction the insects must take, 
 the shorter will be the distance reached. 
 
 The efficacy of the ditch depends not so much on the 
 inability of the young locusts to jump or scale it, as on 
 their tendency not to do so. In the bottom of the ditch 
 they soon become demoralized, crippled and enfeebled, by 
 constant efibrt, and the trampling and crowding upon one 
 another. 
 
 4. Catching. — There are innumerable mechanical con- 
 trivances for this purpose. The cheapest and most 
 satisfactory are those intended to bag the insects. A 
 frame two feet high and of varying length, according as it 
 is to be drawn by men or horses, with a bag of sheeting 
 tapering behind and ending in a small bag or tube, say one 
 foot in diameter and two or three feet long, with a fine 
 wire door at the end to admit the light and permit the 
 11 
 
162 The Roclcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 dumi^ing of the insects, will do admirable work. The 
 insects gravitate toward the wire screen, and when the 
 secondary bag is full they may be emptied into a pit dug 
 for the purpose. These bagging-machines will prove most 
 serviceable when grain is too high for the kerosene pans, 
 presently to be described, and they will be rendered more 
 effectual by having runners at distances of about every 
 two feet extending a foot or so in front of the mouth, so 
 as to more thoroughly disturb the insects and prevent them 
 from getting underneath; also by being drawn by wings of 
 vertical teeth so as to increase the scope with as little 
 resistance to the wind as possible. 
 
 Hand nets, such as are used by entomologists, and which 
 [Fig. 34.] are easily made as 
 
 shown in accompany- 
 /^ N. ing figure, will do good 
 ( ) service in gardens. 
 
 A curious suction- 
 fanning machine has 
 been invented by Mr. 
 a ^ ^ '' J. C» King, of Boulder, 
 
 Hand Net ;-a, complete, b, hollow handle: c, Q -^ ^^^ ^ T^^ 
 Dent iiame. ' J 
 
 tioned in this connection. A strong draft sucks the insects 
 up through an elongate mouth with lips that run near the 
 ground, and draws them up through two funnels and knocks 
 them to pieces. I have seen the working of such a machine 
 in Mr. T. Co Henry's possession at Abilene, Kan. It is an 
 admirable invention, and may be improved so as to be of 
 great service ; but on account of its expense will scarcely 
 compete with the more simple methods. 
 
 5. Use of destructive agents. — Kerosene is the most 
 effective. It may be used in any of its cruder forms. In 
 Colorado they use it to good advantage on the water in 
 their irrigating-ditches, and it may be used anywhere in 
 
 H 
 
Practical Considerations. 
 
 163 
 
 pans or in saturated cloths, stretched on frames, drawn 
 over a field. A good and cheap pan is made of ordinary 
 sheet-iron, eight feet long, eleven inches wide at the 
 bottom, and turned up a foot high at the back and an inch 
 high at the front. A runner at each end, extending some 
 distance behind, and a cord attached to each front corner, 
 complete the pan, at a cost of about ll.oO. 
 
 [Fig. 35.] 
 
 Small Coal-oil Pan. 
 
 I have known from seven to ten bushels of young locusts 
 caught with one such pan in an afternoon. It is easily 
 pulled by two boys, and by running several together in a 
 row, one boy to each outer rope and one to each contiguous 
 pair, the best work is performed with the least labor. Heav- 
 ier or longer pans, to be drawn by horses, should have 
 transverse partitions to avoid spilling the liquid ; also more 
 runners. The oil maybe used alone so as to just cover the 
 bottom, or on the surface of water, and the insects strained 
 through a wire ladle. When the insects are very small, 
 one may economize in kerosene by lining the pan with 
 saturated cloth ; but this becomes less efficient afterwards, 
 and frames of cloth saturated with oil do not equal the pans. 
 
164 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Where oil has been scarce, some persons have substituted 
 concentrated lye, but when used strong enough to kill, it 
 costs about as much as the oil. The oil-pans can be used 
 only when the crops to be protected are small. 
 
 Small pans for oil, attached to an obliquing pole or 
 handle, do excellent service in gardens. 
 
 Large Coal-oil Pan. 
 
 Coal tar may also be used to good advantage in similar 
 pans, either drawn or pushed by man or horse. 
 
 Mr. Rufus Clark, of Denver, uses apiece of oil cloth, nine 
 to tAvelve feet long, and six feet wide ; one side and each 
 end are secured to light wooden strips by common carpet 
 tacks, and the corners strengthened by braces. 
 
 " The oil cloth is smeared with coal tar, purchased at the 
 Denver Gas Works for $7.50 per barrel, and the trap is 
 dragged over the ground by two men — a cord about ten 
 feet long being fastened to the front corners for that purpose. 
 The entire expense of the " trap " is about $3.50, and as it 
 is light and easily handled, will be found serviceable on 
 small as well as large farms." 
 
 Zinc instead of oil cloth has also been used for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 The experience of 1875 showed that when the insects 
 
Practical Considerations. 165 
 
 are famishing, it is useless to try and protect plants by 
 any application whatever. Sweetened water, which was 
 supposed to be eifective, certainly has no such eiFect on the 
 unfledged hoppers, for they " went for " plants which I 
 thus sprinkled even more voraciously than for those not 
 sprinkled. Lime does not deter them ; cresylic soap will 
 not keep them from eating ; and Paris green, though it 
 undoubtedly kills those which partake, is yet no protection 
 to plants, because those which go ofl" to die somewhere 
 after partaking are continuously followed by others which 
 go through the same experience. I gave carbonic acid gas, 
 from a Babcock fire extinguisher, a thorough trial under 
 many different circumstances and conditions, but without 
 any satisfactory results. It had very little effect upon 
 them even when played upon them continuously and at 
 short distance. They often became numbed by the force 
 of the liquid but invariably rallied again. 
 
 A mixture of kerosene and warm water, applied through 
 an atomizer or spraying machine, is, perhaps, the best pro- 
 tection, and will measurably keep the insects off when they 
 are not too numerous. 
 
 Paris green, mixed with flour, in proportion of one part 
 of green to twenty-five or thirty parts of the dilutent, if 
 scattered on the ground, will attract quite a number of the 
 msects, which will eat thereof and die. This mixture has 
 long been known to kill the Colorado Potato-beetle. Its 
 use against the young locusts is, however, practically of 
 little avail, first on account of their numbers, secondly on 
 account of the danger incident to the use of so poisonous a 
 remedy. 
 
 PKOTECTION OF FRUIT TREES. 
 
 The best means of protecting fruit and shade trees de- 
 serves separate consideration. Where the trunk is smooth 
 
166 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 and perpendicular, they may be protected by whitewash- 
 ing. The lime crumbles under the feet of the insects as 
 they attempt to climb, and prevents their getting up. By 
 their persistent efforts, however, they gradually tear off 
 the lime and reach a higher point each day, so that the 
 whitewashing must be often repeated. Trees with short, 
 rough trunks, or which lean, are not very well protected 
 in this way. A strip of smooth, bright tin answers even 
 better for the same purpose. Encircling the tree in any 
 of the different ways employed for preventing the ascen- 
 sion of the female Canker Worm, puts an effectual estop- 
 pel on the operations of the young locusts above the point 
 of attachment, for they can not jump from and alight again 
 on the same perpendicular surface. A strip of tin three or 
 four inches wide, brought around and tacked to a smooth 
 tree, will protect it ; while oil rougher trees a piece of old 
 rope may first be tacked around the tree, and the tin 
 tacked to it so as to leave a portion both above and below. 
 Passages between the tin and the rope, or the rope and 
 tree, can then be blocked by filling the upper area be- 
 tween tin and tree with earth. The tin must be high 
 enough from the ground to prevent the hoppers from 
 jumping from the latter beyond it ; and the trunk below 
 the tin, where the insects collect, should be covered with 
 coal tar or some poisonous substance, to prevent girdling. 
 This is more especially necessary with small trees. 
 
 One of the cheapest and simplest modes is to encircle 
 the tree with cotton batting, in which the insects will en- 
 tangle their feet, and thus be more or less obstructed. 
 Strips of paper covered with tar, stiff paper tied on so as to 
 slope roof-fashion, strips of glazed wall-paper, and thick 
 coatings of soft soap, have been used with varying success, 
 but no estoppel equals the bright tin. The others require 
 constant watching and renewal, and in all cases coming 
 
Practical Considerations. 167 
 
 under my observation, some insects would get into the 
 trees, so as to require the daily shaking of these, morning 
 and evening. This will sometimes have to be done, when 
 the bulk of the insects have become fledged, even where 
 tin is used, for a certain proportion of the insects will then 
 fly into the trees. They do most damage during the night, 
 and care should be had that the trees be unloaded of their 
 voracious freight just before dark. 
 
 Most cultivated plants may be measurably protected 
 from the ravages of these young by good cultivation and a 
 constant stirring of the soil. The young have an antipa- 
 thy to a loose and friable surface, which incommodes them 
 and hinders their progress, and they will often leave such 
 a surface for one more hard and firm. 
 
 Finally, though insisting on ditching and the digging of 
 pits as, all things considered, the best and most reliable 
 insurance against the ravages of the young locusts, I would 
 urge our farmers not to rely on these means alone, but to 
 employ all the other means recommended, according as 
 convenience and opportunity suggest. 
 
 One of my correspondents, Capt. John R. Wherry, of 
 Boonville, Mo., has suggested the use of strips of canvas, 
 dipped in liquid sulphur and attached to stakes to be stuck 
 in the ground. He thinks that if the strips are lit at even- 
 ing the fumes will drive the insects away from the locality 
 they pervade. The suggestion strikes me quite favorably 
 as a means of protecting orchards, and I would recommend 
 its trial. The strips should be dipped in hot sulphur, 
 allowed to cool, and then staked to the windward of the 
 orchard, if the wind is stirring. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE WINGED INSECTS. 
 
 The complete destruction of the winged insects, when 
 they swoop down upon a country in prodigous swarms, is 
 
168 TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 imijossible. Man is powerless before the mighty host. 
 Special plants, or small tracts of vegetation may be saved 
 by perseveringly driving the insects off, or keeping them 
 off by means of smudges, as the locusts avoid smoke; or 
 by rattling or tinkling noises constantly kept up. Long 
 ropes perseveringly dragged over a grain field, have been 
 used to good advantage. Great numbers may be caught 
 and destroyed by bagging and crushing, as recommended 
 for the new-fledged ; and I would more particularly urge 
 their destruction in this way late in the season, Avhen, 
 early and late in the day, they are comparatively sluggish: 
 but as a rule, the vast swarms from the West or Northwest 
 will have everything their own way. In the latitude of 
 St. Louis, these invading swarms usually come too late to 
 affect the small grains, or to materially affect corn ; but 
 farther north they are more to be dreaded, and the ex- 
 perience of Minnesota and Dakota farmers teaches that 
 one of the best ways of avoiding their injuries is to grow 
 such crops as will mature early. 
 
 Mr. S. T. Kelsey succeeded in saving many of his yoimg 
 forest trees in Kansas, in 1874, by perseveringly smudging 
 and smoking them. 
 
 He gives his experience in the following words, in the 
 Kansas Farmer^ Aug. 26, 1874 : 
 
 At first we tried building fires on the ground, but it was not suc- 
 cessful. The smoke would not go where we wanted it to. We then 
 tried taking a bunch of hay and, holding it between sticks, would 
 fire it, and then, passing tnrough the field on the windward side, 
 would hold it so that the smoke would strike the grasshoppers. We 
 would soon have a cloud of hoppers on the wing, and by following 
 It up would, in a short time, clear the field. We have thus far 
 saved everything that was not destroyed wlien we commenced figlit- 
 ing them ; and while I do not give this as an infallible remedy, not 
 having tried it sufficiently, yet it does seem to me, from what I 
 have seen of it, that one good active man who would attend right 
 to it, could protect a twenty-acre field or a large orchard. But to be 
 successful, one must attend right to the business. 
 
Practical Considerations. 169 
 
 PREYENTIVK MEASURES. 
 
 The measures so far recommended have in view the de- 
 struction of the insects when once they are upon us. The 
 question very naturally arises, "Can not something be 
 done to prevent the incursions of the species into the 
 more fertile States in which it is not indigenous ? " 
 
 The most important results are likely to flow from a 
 thorough study of the Rocky Mountain Locust in its 
 native haunts and breeding places, such as the U. S. En- 
 tomological Commission is now engaged in. By learning 
 just when and how to strike the insect, so as to prevent, 
 if possible, its undue multiplication there — whether by 
 some more extensive system of irrigation, based on im- 
 proved knowledge of the topography and water supply 
 of the country, or by other means of destroying the eggs 
 — we may hope to protect the fertile States to the East 
 from future calamity. 
 
 One of the best means of checking the increase of the 
 species in its native haunts, will be found in the encourage- 
 ment and increase of its natural enemies, especially the 
 game birds. The introduction of the English sparrow has 
 been recommended. From what I know of the bird, both 
 here and in its native country, I should expect little aid 
 from it in this line, and if it can thrive to the Northwest, 
 it will soon spread there, as it is rapidly multiplying at 
 several points along the Mississippi. We may expect 
 more good from the encouragement of native locust-feed- 
 ing species. Prof. Thomas has suggested that induce- 
 ments be offered to the Indians to collect and destroy the 
 eggs and young along the west side of the plains. Some 
 system of preventing the extensive prairie fires in fall that 
 are common in the country where the insect naturally 
 breeds, and then subsequently firing the country in the 
 
lYO Tlie Rocky Mountain Locnst. 
 
 spring, after the young hatch, and before the new grass 
 gets too rank, might also be adopted. But whatever the 
 means employed, they must be carried on systematically, 
 and on a sufficiently extended and comprehensive scale. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS THAT MAY BE OF SERVICE. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing remedial and preventive 
 measures to be taken in dealing with locusts, a few other 
 suggestions occur, which may be of advantage. The 
 plants that can be grown, which are unmolested by the 
 pests, and which will not, in all likelihood, suiFer, have 
 already been enumerated. Those which are cultivated 
 are principally peas and other leguminous species, castor 
 beans, sorghum, broom-corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, 
 etc. The locusts, as already stated, are particularly fond 
 of tansy, cocklebur, and Amarantus : these weeds, where 
 abundant, might be periodically sprinkled with Paris 
 Green water or powder, so as to kill large numbers of the 
 young insects. These last will also congregate on timothy 
 in preference to other grasses or grain, and a strip of 
 timothy around a corn or wheat-field, to be poisoned in 
 the same way, might save the latter. It is also currently 
 supposed that the common larkspur {I)elphinixm%) is 
 poisonous to these insects, but how much truth there is in 
 the statement I am unable to tell. In going through an 
 oat-field, the winged insects drop a great deal of the grain, 
 which, when ripe enough, might at once be harrowed in 
 so as to furnish a good growth of fodder that can be cut 
 and cured for winter use. The lesson of 1S73 and 1874 
 should also not go unheeded. The former year was one 
 of plenty, and corn was so cheap and abundant that it 
 was burned for fuel in many sections where, in 1874, there 
 were empty cribs, and the farmers wished they had been 
 more provident. 
 
Practical Considerations. 171 
 
 Nothing, however, will so surely insure those States 
 subject to them, against the ravages of this insect, as irri- 
 gation. With water at command, the farmer in all this 
 locust area is measurably master of his two greatest insect 
 plagues, the Chinch bug and the Locust, and full master of 
 the young locusts, either by inundating the land and 
 drowning them out after hatching, or by using kerosene 
 in the ditches ; and if there were no other reasons to be 
 urged in its favor, these are sufficient to warrant those 
 States included in said area in using all means in their 
 power in having schemes for irrigation perfected and 
 carried out, so far as the topography, soil, and other pecu- 
 liarities of the country will admit. 
 
 Hogs and poultry of every description delight tft feed 
 on the young hoppers, and will flourish where these 
 abound, when nothing else does. It will be well, in the 
 event of a future invasion, for the people in the invaded 
 districts to provide themselves with as large a quantity as 
 possible of this stock. Where no general and systematic 
 efforts have been made to destroy either the eggs or the 
 young locusts, and it is found that, as spring opens, these 
 young hatch out in threatening numbers, the intelligent 
 farmer will delay the planting of everything that can not 
 be jirotected by ditching, until the very last moment, or 
 till toward the end of June — using his team and time 
 solely in the preparation of his land. In this way not 
 only will he save his seed and the labor of planting, and, 
 perhaps, rej^lanting, but he will materially assist in weak- 
 ening the devouring armies. Men planted in IS'ZS, and 
 worked with a will and energy born of necessity, only to 
 see their crojjs finally taken, their seed gone, and their 
 teams and themselves worn out. The locusts ultimately 
 destroyed every green thing, until, finding nothing more, 
 they began to fall upon each other and to perish. This 
 
172 Tlie Rocky 3Ioiuitam Locust. 
 
 critical period in their history would have been brought 
 about much earlier if they had not had the cultivated 
 crops to feed upon ; and if, by concert of action, this sys- 
 tem of non-planting could at first have been adopted over 
 large areas, the insects would have been much sooner 
 starved out and obliged to congregate in the pastures, 
 prairies and timber. Moreover, the time required for early 
 planting and cultivation, if devoted to destroying the in- 
 sects after the bulk of them hatch out, toward the end 
 of April, would virtually annihilate them. The multipli- 
 cation of any species of animal beyond the power of the 
 country to support it, inevitably proves the destruction of 
 that species, unless it is able to migrate. Let fifty batches 
 of caiiker-worm eggs hatch out on a single, somewhat 
 isolated apple tree, and not one worm will survive long 
 enough to mature. The leaves of the tree will be de- 
 voured before the worms are half grown, and the latter 
 must then inevitably perish ; whereas, if only a dozen 
 batches of eggs had hatched on that tree, the worms 
 might all have lived and matured. In the same way, the 
 young locusts inevitably perish whenever they are so nu- 
 merous as to devour every green thing before they become 
 fledged ; and in certain circumstances, the sooner such a 
 condition of things is brought about, the better. The 
 greatest generals and the mightiest armies must yield to 
 starvation. 
 
 Grain might also be sown in " lands " or strips, fifty to 
 one hundred feet wide, to permit of ditching between 
 them, and those who have fall wheat up and doing well, 
 where the eggs are thickly laid, should make ditches at 
 intervals through the field, to facilitate the saving of the 
 grain in the spring. 
 
 In this connection it is also very obvious that our Sig- 
 nal Service might be made the means of giving important 
 
Practical Considerations. 173 
 
 assistance to the farmers of the "West, by warning them 
 of coming danger. If, as I believe, the disastrous swarms 
 which reach the southeastern country come from the ex- 
 treme Northwest, there is no reason why, by increasing 
 the number of signal stations in that region, the move- 
 ments of large swarms should not be daily recorded, and 
 the farmers to the East and Southeast be apprised of their 
 probable coming for weeks in advance. The people might 
 not, it is true, greatly benefit by the information, except 
 in preparing and providing for the possible contingency ; 
 but by thus recording the movements of swarms, we shall 
 in a few years come to know more about the native breed- 
 ing places and habits of the species, and as the Bureau 
 perfects its work, we may, through it, learn the fall before, 
 when the insects have become unduly multiplied, or have 
 laid enormous quantities of eggs, over large areas in their 
 native habitat, and when, in consequence, an invasion the 
 following year is probable ; in which event a larger pro- 
 portion of small grains and other crops that escape the 
 ravages of the fall swarms, can be planted in the threat- 
 ened country. 
 
 As to the best means of disposing of the slaughtered lo- 
 custs, the easiest and most generally employed are burning 
 and burying. Yet the insects might be turned to good 
 advantage as manure, or sun-dried and preserved in cakes 
 to feed to hogs, poultry, etc., and where large quantities 
 are destroyed under a bounty system, some such means 
 of making the most of them should be considered. 
 
 As a means of assisting farmers i^n the destruction of the 
 unfledged locusts by trenches and in other ways, I would 
 also urge the employment of the military, a large force of 
 whom, in times of peace, could be oi'dered to the field at 
 short notice. As I have elsewhere remarket! :* "To many, the 
 
 • Proc. Am Ass. Adv. Sc, 1875. B. 219. 
 
174 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 idea of emj^loying soldiers to assist the agriculturist in bat- 
 tling with this pest, may seem farcical enough, but though 
 the men might not find glory in the fight, the war — unlike 
 most other wars — would be fraught only with good conse- 
 quences to mankind. In Algeria the custom prevails of send- 
 ing the soldiers against these insects. While in the south 
 of France last summer [1875], I found to my great satisfac- 
 tion, that at Aries, Bouche du Rhone, where the unfledged 
 locusts {Caloptenus Itcdicus, a species closely allied to our 
 Rocky Mountain Locust), were doing great harm, the 
 soldiers had been sent in force to do battle with them, and 
 were then and there waging a vigorous war against the tiny 
 foe." A few regiments, armed with no more deadly 
 weapons than the common spade, sent out to sections of 
 country that are sufiering from locust ravages, might in a 
 few weeks measurably rout the pygmean army, and 
 materially assist the farmer in his ditching operations. 
 
 DIVERSIFIED AGRICULTURE. 
 
 Finally, much can be done to avert the evil we are con- 
 sidering by a judicious choice of crops. There is nothing 
 surer than that the destitution in Western Missouri and 
 Eastern Kansas, in 1874-a, was fully as much owing 
 to the previous ravages of the Chinch bug as to those 
 of this locust. The Chinch bug is an annual and increas- 
 ing trouble ; the locust only a periodical one. Now, the 
 regions indicated, agriculturally, are the richest in those 
 two States, and, for that matter, can scarcely be surpassed 
 in the entire country. Consisting of high, rolling prairie, 
 interspersed, as a rule, with an abundance of good timber, 
 this area produces a very large amount of corn and stock. 
 Of cultivated crops, corn is the staple, and, with a most 
 generous soil, it has become the fashion to plant and culti- 
 vate little else, year after year, on the same ground. The 
 
Practical Considerations. 175 
 
 corn fields alternate more or less with pastures, and 
 there is just enough small grain to breed and nourish the 
 first brood of chinch bugs which pass into the corn at 
 harvest time and which scatter over the country, by breed- 
 ing and harboring in the corn fields. Not to mention the 
 different means to be employed in counteracting the ravages 
 of this insect, a diversified agriculture is undoubtedly one 
 of the most effectual. It must necessarily follow that the 
 more extensively any given crop is cultivated to the exclu- 
 sion of other crops the more will the peculiar insects which 
 depredate upon it become unduly and injuriously abundant. 
 The Chinch bug is confined in its depredations to the 
 grasses and cereals. Alternate your timothy, wheat, barley, 
 corn, etc., upon which it flourishes, with any of the numer- 
 ous crops on which it can not flourish, and you very 
 materially affect its power for harm. A crop of corn or 
 wheat grown on a piece of land entirely free from chinch 
 bugs will not suffer to the same extent as a crop grown on 
 land where the insects have been breeding and harboring. 
 This fact is becoming partially recognized, and already 
 hemp, flax and castor beans are to some extent cultivated 
 in the States mentioned. But there are many other 
 valuable root and forage plants that may yet be introduced 
 and grown as field crops. 
 
 Of root crops that would escape the ravages of the 
 winged locusts, and which would grow in ordinary seasons, 
 and furnish excellent food for stock, may be mentioned 
 turnips, ruta bagas, mangel wurzel, carrots (especially the 
 large Belgian), parsnips and beets. Of tubers that are not 
 so profitable but of which it would be well to plant small 
 quantities in locust districts, for the reason, as my friend 
 A. S. Fuller, of New York, suggests, that they grow with 
 such ease, and are less likely to be injured by the insects, 
 the Chinese Yam, Jerusalem Artichoke {Helianthus tube- 
 
376 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 rostcs), and the Chufa {Cyjyerus esculentus) are worthy of 
 trial. Turnips, of which the insects are especially fond, 
 kohlrabi, carrots, and the like, may be saved when they 
 come late, by cutting off the tops and covering the roots 
 with earth — the tops making excellent food for milch cows. 
 The earth should be removed again as soon as possible to 
 prevent the rotting of the roots. 
 
 LEGISLATION. 
 
 Too much stress can not be laid on the advantage of ct>- 
 operation and concert of action, and legislation both to 
 induce and to oblige action is important. In every com- 
 munity there are those who persist in doing nothing to 
 prevent locust injury. These indifferents frequently bring 
 ruin not only upon themselves, but upon more persevering 
 neighbors, and any law will prove beneficial that will 
 oblige every able-bodied man to work one or more days, 
 either in the fall in destroying the eggs, or in the spring in 
 killing the young insects, whenever the township trustees, 
 at the request of a given number of citizens of the town- 
 ship, may call them to such work under special provisions 
 similar to those of existing road- laws. 
 
 It is a gratifying indication of the increasing apprecia- 
 tion of economic entomology that, while three years ago 
 the mere suggestion to enact laws for the suppression of 
 injurious insects would have been, and was, received by 
 our legislators with ridicule ; yet, during the winter of 
 1876-7, several States have seen fit to pass acts that have 
 for object the destruction of this locust, or the relief of the 
 suftering and destitution it so often entails — not to men- 
 tion the appropriation made by Congress for a special 
 investigation. The following are the State laws that have 
 been passed : 
 
Practical Considerations. Ill 
 
 MISSOURI. — An Act to ekcoukage the destkuction ok 
 
 GRASSHOPPERS. 
 
 Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Missouri, as 
 follows • 
 
 Section 1. Any person who shall gather, or cause to be gathered 
 by any person in his employ, eggs of the Rocky Mountain locust or 
 grasshopper, at any time after they are deposited in the earth in the 
 autumn of any year, and before they are hatched the followiug 
 spring, shall be entitled to a bounty of five dollars for each and 
 every bushel of eggs thus gathered, or for any quantity less than 
 one bushel, bounty at the same rate, to be paid, one-half by the 
 State and one-half by the county in which they are gathered. 
 
 Sec. 2. Any person who shall gather, collect and kill, or cause 
 to be so collected and killed, young and unfledged grasshoppers in 
 the month of March, shall be entitled to a bounty of one dollar for 
 each bushel, and for the month of April, fifty cents per bushel, and 
 for the month of May, twenty-five cents per bushel, to be paid in 
 the same manner as in the preceding section. 
 
 Sec. 3. Any person claiming bounty under this act, shall pro- 
 duce the eggs and grasshoppers thus gathered or killed, as the case 
 may be, before the clerk of the county court in which such eggs or 
 grasshoppers were gathered or killed, within ten days thereafter, 
 whereupon said clerk shall administer to such person the following 
 oath or affirmation: You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case 
 may be,) that the eggs (or grasshoppers, as the case may be,) pro- 
 duced by you, were taken and gathered by you, or by person 
 or persons in your employ, or under j'our control, and within this 
 county and State. 
 
 Sec. 4. Tlie clerk shall forthwith destroy said eggs by burning 
 the same and give to the person proving up the same under his hand 
 and seal, a certificate setting forth in a plain handwriting, without 
 interlineation, the amount of eggs or grasshoppers procluced and 
 destroj'ed by him, and the name and residence of such person pro- 
 ducing the same, which certificate shall be in the following form: 
 
 STATE OF MISSOURI, ) 
 County of. . , \ 
 
 This is to certify that in the county of A. B. 
 
 did this da3^ prove before me that he had gathered, or caused to be 
 
 gathered, of eggs, grasshoppers, and is 
 
 entitled to the sum of dollars, and cents. 
 
 Given under my hand a'^d seal of my office, this 
 day of A. D. 18... 
 
 A. B. , Clerk County Court. 
 
 Which certificate shall be received a_d taken by the collector of 
 revenue of the county in which the same was given, and such 
 12 
 
178 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 collector shall be allowed paj^ out of tlie county and State Treasury, 
 one-lialf from each. 
 
 Sec. 5. Such clerk shall keep a register of all such certificates 
 given by him, in a book which he shall keep for that purpose, in 
 which he shall note down eveiy certificate granted by him, the 
 number and amount, and to whom granted, and transmit a certified 
 copy of such register, under the seal of the court, to the Treasurer 
 of the State, wiio shall not allow and pay any certificate, which 
 does not correspond with such register. 
 
 Sec. 6. Such clerk shall receive for his services as aforesaid, 
 one dollar for such certified copy of the register, and the regular 
 fee for the certificate and seal, and ten cents for each certificate 
 granted under this act, all to be paid out of the treasury of his county. 
 
 Sec. 7. As the object of this act is the rapid destruction of the 
 locust the ensuing spriug, it shall take effect and be in force from 
 and after its passage. 
 
 Approved February 23, 1877. 
 
 Tliis act is drawn x;p after the form recommended in my 8th 
 Report, and reprinted in the Omaha pamphlet. Section 3, 
 requiring persons claiming bounty, to carry from all parts 
 of the county, the eggs or young insects collected, is de- 
 fective, as those living near the county seat will have 
 most advantage and inducement. It . would be better 
 to empower the Township Trustee, or the Street Commis- 
 sioner, to receive and measure the eggs or young insects, 
 and to issue certificates setting forth the number of bushels 
 destroyed — the certificates to be filed with the County Clerk. 
 
 KANSAS — An Act TO PROVIDE fou tur destruction of grass- 
 hoppers AND to punish FOR VIOLATION OF THIS ACT. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Kansas: 
 
 Section 1. That the township trustees of the different town- 
 ships, and the mayors of cities which are not included i a any township 
 of any county within this State, are hereby authorized and it is made 
 their duty, when so requested, in writing, by fifteen of the legal 
 voters of the township or city, to issue orders to the road overseers 
 of the different road districts within their respective townships or 
 cities, to warn out all able-bodied males between the ages of twelve 
 and fifty years within their respective districts for the purpose of 
 destroying locusts or migratory insects. 
 
 Sec 2. It shall be the duty of road overseers, immediately 
 after receiving said orders, to proceed at once to warn out all persons 
 liable under section one of this act, giving notice of the time and 
 
Practical Considerations. 179 
 
 place of meeting, and the tools to be used, and the kind of work 
 expected to be performed, and all work shall be done and performed 
 under the direction of the road overseers. 
 
 Sec. 3. Any persons over eighteen years of age warned out as is 
 provided in this act, may pay the road overseer the sum of one 
 dollar per day for the time so warned out, and in case any persons 
 shall fail to perform labor under this act or paying the sum of one 
 dollar when so warned out, shall be adjudged guilty of a misde- 
 meanor, and on conviction, shall be fined the sum of three dollars 
 for each day so failing or refusing, and the moneys so collected shall 
 be expended by the road overseers in the destruction of grasshoppers 
 in their respective road districts. 
 
 Sec. 4. For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this 
 act the road overseer is authorized to enter upon the premises of any 
 person lying within the township where such order of the township 
 trustee is in force, with a sutficient number of hands and teams to 
 perform such labor as he may deem necessary for the public good. 
 
 Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the State Board 
 of Agriculture, immediately after the passage of this act, to com- 
 pile in circular form all information relating to the manner and 
 means heretofore used for the extermination of grasshoppers, and 
 send at least ten copies of the same to each township trustee m the 
 State. 
 
 Sec. 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after 
 its publication once iu the CommomoeaWi . 
 
 Approved March 6, 1877. 
 
 An Act providing for a concert op action by senatorial, 
 districts for the destruction of grasshoppers. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of KaJisas : 
 
 Section 1 That in any senatorial district in the State of 
 Kansas, where trouble is anticipated from the ravages of young 
 grasshoppers, in the year 1877, and any subsequent year thereafter, 
 it shall be lawful for the counties in said senatorial district to co- 
 operate together in the way and manner herein provided, for the 
 destruction of the same. 
 
 Sec. 3. The chairman of the board of county commissioners in 
 the county having the largest number of inhabitants in a senatorial 
 district, where two or more counties form said district, may notify 
 the chairman of each of the boards of county commissioners of the 
 remaining counties in said district, of the time and place when 
 the chairmen of the several boards of commissioners of the respec- 
 tive counties forming said senatorial district shall hold a joint 
 meeting. 
 
 Sec. 3. At such meeting two of their number shall be chosen to 
 act as chairman and secretaiy, and the proceedings of the meeting 
 shall be published in all the newspapers printed in the senatorial 
 district. 
 
 Sec. 4. Said meeting shall designate the manner of procedure 
 
180 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 by road overseers, and what day or days the young grasshoppers 
 should be driven from the cultivated land on the unburnt prairie or 
 places of destruction, and shall also designate on what day or days 
 the grasshoppers shall be destroyed, by burning or otherwise, in 
 said senatorial district, giving at least ten days' notice of the same 
 by publishing in the newspapers of the said district. 
 
 Sec. 5. The board of commissioners of each county shall notify 
 the road overseers of said county of the time fixed upon by the 
 joint meeting for the driving and burning, or destroying by other 
 means, of the grasshoppers in the district ; said notice to be given 
 to said overseers as soon as practicable after the same shall have 
 been determined by the joint meeting. 
 
 Sec. 6. Said road overseers shall immediately notify the residents 
 of his road district of the time designated and the manner of pro- 
 cedure, in order to carry out the provisions of this act. He shall 
 also specify what tools or implements will be required of each 
 resident in performing the labor required of him ; and such notice 
 may be enforced the same as in the acts authorizing road overseers 
 to warn out the residents to perform road labor ; and a refusal shall 
 subject such persons refusing to the same penalties as are provided 
 by iaw in such cases. 
 
 Sec. 7. The road overseers shall direct the manner of perform- 
 ing the labor, and have the supervision of the same, and shall keep 
 a list of the names of those who shall perform labor, and shall certify 
 the number of days' work performed by each, and shall place such 
 certified list in the possession of the board of county commissioners 
 of his county. 
 
 Sec. 8. It shall be lawful for two or more senatorial districts to 
 co-operate together under the provisions of this act, on a basis of 
 action which they may agree upon. 
 
 Sec. 9. This act shalUake eflFect and be in force from and after 
 its publication in the daily Commonwealth, 
 
 Approved March 7, 1877. 
 
 Both these acts look to compulsory work and concert 
 of action, and in these respects are preferable to bounty 
 acts, and will, without dojibt, be productive of more good 
 to the community at less expense to the State. The ob- 
 jects of the two acts should, I think, have been combined 
 in one. 
 
 MINNESOTA — An Act to provide for the destruction op 
 
 GKASSHOPPERS AND THEIR EGGS. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota : 
 
 Section 1. There shall be paid by this State, out of any moneys 
 in the treasury thereof, not otherwise appropriated, to any person 
 
Practical Considerations. 181 
 
 or persons living within any of the counties in said State aiflicted 
 by grasshoppers, the following bounties for catching and destroying 
 of the same, and the destruction of their eggs. 
 
 Sec. 2. The sum of one dollar per bushel for grasshoppers 
 caught previous to the twenty-fifth day of May next. The sum of 
 fifty cents per bushel from the said twenty-fifth day of May to the 
 tenth day of June. The sum of twenty-five cents per bushel from 
 the said tenth day of June to the first day of July, and twenty cents 
 per bushel from the said first day of July to the first day of Octo- 
 ber next. 
 
 Sec. 3. There shall also be paid in the same manner, the sum of 
 fifty cents per gallon for any and all grasshopper eggs taken and 
 destroyed by any person or persons. 
 
 Sec. 4. There shall be appointed by the Governor a competent 
 person in each township in the several counties so afliicted by grass- 
 hoppers, who shall be a resident of the township for which he shall 
 be appointed, to receive, measure and destroy the grasshoppers and 
 their eggs delivered to him by any person or persons catching and 
 taking the same, which said person so appointed shall take and 
 subscribe an oath for the faithful discharge of his duties, which 
 oath, together with the certificate of appointment, shall be filed in 
 the office of the county auditor, and he shall receive as compensa- 
 tion for his services such sum as the county commissioner may deter- 
 mine, to be paid out of the funds of the county ; and in case of 
 necessity, when he can not perform the duties of his office, said 
 measurer shall have authority and be empowered to appoint a suit- 
 able and competent person his assistant, which assistant shall be 
 required to take and subscribe the same oath and be subject to the 
 same penalties as the said measurer. 
 
 Sec. 5. The person receiving and measuring the grasshoppers 
 and their eggs as aforesaid, shall measure and immediately and 
 effectually destroy the same, and keep an exact account of all the 
 grasshoppers and their eggs received by him and the names of the 
 persons delivering the same, and shall issue a certificate for the 
 amount of grasshoppers and their eggs to the person delivering the 
 same. And he shall, at the end of each week after commencing to 
 receive and measure the same, and on the second day of June, on 
 the eleventh day of said month, on the second day of July, and on 
 the second day of October next, make a report to the county auditor 
 of all the grasshoppers and their eggs measured by him, the number 
 of certificates issued, and the names of the persons to whom he 
 issued the same ; and the county auditor shall examine the same 
 and file it in his office, which report shall be subject to public in- 
 spection ; and the county auditor shall, at the end of each week 
 after he shall have received the first of said reports, transmit a copy 
 of the said reports to the Governor, who shall, as soon as the sum 
 hereby appropriated shall have been expended in the payment of 
 said bounties, notify all persons interested therein of such fact by a 
 publication of such notice in some newspaper printed and published 
 at the city of Saint Paul, in said State of Minnesota, for three suc- 
 cessive days. 
 
182 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Sec. 6. For a failure on the part of said measurer to perform 
 any of his duties under tliis act, or for any misnicasurement of 
 such gnisshoi)pcrs and their ef2;fis, he shall be deemed to be guilty 
 of a misdemeanor, and be sul)joct to pay a line of not less tlian 
 ten dollars nor more thiin one hundred dollars, or ])(? imprisoned in 
 the county jail for a term of not less than thirty nor more than 
 ninety days, in a suit or i)roceeding to be prosecuted in the name 
 of the State of Minnesota, in tlie same manner as is provided by 
 law in other cnscs of misdemeanor. 
 
 Skc. 7. Upon the ])rescntation of such certificate to the county 
 auditor, he shall issue a certificate to the i)erson entitled thereto for 
 the amount due him, (a form of which certificate shall be furnislied 
 by the State Auditor), and shall make an order upon the Stale Au- 
 ditor for the amount thereof, and the State Auditor shall draw liis 
 warrant U])on the State Treasurer for tiiat amount, in favor of the 
 ])arties Iiolding said certificiiles, which sliall be paid by the State 
 Treasurer on presentation : Provided, That all certificates presented 
 to the county ainlitor for paymcint shall be by him tiled and pre- 
 served in his ofiic(!, and he shall present such certificates to the 
 board of county commissioners, who shall audit the same in the 
 manner now provided by law for auditing accounts against coun- 
 ties ; and no money shall be drawn from the State Treasury until 
 such certificates have been audited and allowed in the manner 
 heniin provided. And that no money shall be |)aid under the pro- 
 visions of this act at any time prior to the fifteenth day of July, 
 A.I), eighteen huiulred and .seventy-seven, and that the money here- 
 by appropriat(Hl shall only apply to (^ertificiites duly made and filed 
 with the Auditor of State on or before .said day ; that at the time 
 after the State Auditor shall ascertain the total amount of all 
 claims and c(!rtifi(;atcs so tiled, and if the same shall exceed in 
 amount the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, then the said 
 claims shall be paid i^ro rnia, and no oilier or greater amount than 
 said sum of one himdred thousand dollars .shall ever be i)aid under 
 the provisions of this act; And provided Jnrlher, That if the 
 amount hereby a])i)ropriated is not sufiicient to i)ay the certificates 
 in full, the balance shall be paid by the counties respectively, ac- 
 cording to the amount due on said certificates as issued by such 
 county. 
 
 Skc. 8 Every male inhabitant of the several townships in the 
 said alllicted counties, being above the age of twenty-one years and 
 under the age of sixty years, excerpting paupers, idiots and lunatics, 
 shall bo assessed by the board of supervisors of said township to 
 work one day in each week in said township, during the period 
 hereinbefore nurntioned, for the paying of bounties for the purpose 
 of catching and destroying grasshoppers and their eggs, for five 
 weeks from the time said gra.sshoppers shall become large enough 
 to be taken ; and the amount of work to be so assessed sli:<ll not 
 exceed five days in all. 
 
 Sk(\ y. The supervisors aforesaid .shall make a list of the names 
 of all persons against whom said tax shall have bcren assessed, and 
 place in a column (jpjiosite each name on said list, the amount of 
 
Practical Considerations. 188 
 
 labor assessed against such person, and shall direct the town clerk 
 to m=ike a certified copy of each lint, after which the town cicik 
 shall deliver the several copies to the respective overseers of the 
 highways of snid townships. 
 
 !»EC. 10. The overseers of highways shall give at least two 
 days' notice to all persons assessed to work as aforesaid, living 
 within the limits of tiieir respective districts, of the time and 
 places where and when they are to appear for that purpose, and 
 with what implements. 
 
 Skc. 11. Every i>erson liable to work, as provid(d for in this 
 act, may commute for the same at the rate of one dollar per day, in 
 which case such commutation money shall be paid to the chairman 
 of the board of supervisors, to be applied and expended by him for 
 the destruction of grasshoppers and their eggs, and he shall be 
 authorized and required to hiie and enjrage some suitaljle and efli- 
 cient person to work in the place of said person so commuting, and 
 to pay him the sum of one dollar per flay for Ids services ; and 
 every person intending to commute for his assessment shall, within 
 five days after he is notified to appear and work as aforesairl, pay 
 the commutation money for the work required of him by said 
 notice, and the commutation shall no' be consideied as made until 
 such money is paid. 
 
 8kc. 12. Every person so assessed and notified, who shall will- 
 fully neglect or refuse to commute or woik as provided by this 
 act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction 
 thereof, be liable to pay a fine of not less than two dollars nor 
 more than ten dollars, or by imprisonment in Ihe county jail not 
 more than ten days, or both, in the discretion of the court, in a 
 suit to be |)rosecuted in the name of the State of Minnesota, in the 
 same manner as is provided by law for prosecutions of misde- 
 meanors. 
 
 Sec. 13. There shall be appropriated, out of any moneys in the 
 treasury of this State, not otherwise appropriated, for the purpose 
 of carrying out the provisions of this act, the sum of one hundred 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 Sec. 14. The board of county commissioners of any county in 
 this State afilicted by grassho|)pers, shall have the right, if in their 
 judgment they see fit, to employ one or more persons in each town- 
 ship in said county with feuch implements or mechanical contriv- 
 ances as may prove most eflficient to destroy the grasshoppers, from 
 the first day of April to the first day of August in each year, paying 
 such persons either by the day or a specified sum for the amount 
 captured and destroyed. The compensation of such person shall 
 be paid out of the general fund of the county : Pronded Jurl/ur, 
 That parties employed and paid by the county commissioners shall 
 not receive any other or further comi»eD8ation under the provihions 
 of this act. 
 
 Sec. 15. This act shall take effect and be in force from and 
 after its passaire. 
 
 Approved March 1, 1877. 
 
184 Tlie RocTt}/ Mountain Locud. 
 
 ]More complicated tlian the others, this Minnesota act 
 has certain special features which are intended to meet the 
 peculiar emergency in that State. Yet I do not think the 
 act is so clear or will prove so effectual as the first Kansas 
 act. In addition to this bounty act, the Minnesota Legis- 
 lature passed another, appropriating $75,000 for the pur- 
 chase and distribution of seed grain to the sufferers from 
 locust injuries. 
 
 NEBRASKA — Ax Act to provide for the destruction of 
 
 GRASSHOPPERS. 
 
 Whereas the State of Nebraska has, for the past three years, 
 been devastated by the grasshoppers, thereby greatly injuring the 
 agricultural and commercial interests of the State ; and whereas 
 these interests are liable to be seriously damaged in the future by 
 the recurrence of the pests aforesaid ; therefore. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Legislature of tlie State of Nebraska . 
 
 Section 1 . That the supervisors of each road district in this 
 State shall, at the time when the grasshoppers shall have been 
 hatched out, and before the same shall become full-fledged and fly, 
 notify each able-bodied male resident of his district, between the 
 ages of sixteen and sixty years, to perform two days' labor, at such 
 time and at such place and in such manner as shall by said super- 
 visors be deemed most eflicient in the destruction of the grasshop- 
 pers ; said notices shall be given in the same manner as is provided 
 by law for the notice to work upon public highways. 
 
 Sec. 2. Cities of the first and second class shall be governed by 
 the provisions of this act, and it shall be the duty of the mayor of 
 such cities to appoint, not exceeding two supervisors for each 
 ward, to oversee the labor to be performed under the provisions of 
 this act. 
 
 Sec. 3. In case it shall appear that two days' work is not suffi- 
 cient to destroy the grasshoppers in saxj district or ward, and it 
 shall further appear that more time can be profitably employed 
 in the destruction of the grasshoppers, the supervisors of each ward 
 or road district may require from the persons liable to the provis- 
 ions of this act, not exceeding ten days' labor in addition to the 
 time hereinbefore mentioned ; and it shall be the duty of such 
 supervisor to give to each person who shall have performed labor 
 under the provisions of this section a receipt for the number of 
 days' labor performed, and the supervisor shall upon oath report to 
 the city or county authorities the names and amount of labor per- 
 formed by eacli person. 
 
 Sec. 4. It shall be the dutj' of all persons subject to the pro- 
 
Practical Considerations. 185 
 
 visions of this act to attend when notified as herein provided, and 
 labor under the direction of the supervisor of their respective dis- 
 trict or ward. Any person who, after being notified, shall refuse, 
 neglect, or fail to comply with the provisions of this act, shall for- 
 feit and pay to the county or city treasurers, as the case may be, 
 the sum of ten dollars, together with costs of suit, which sum 
 shall be collected by suit before any justice of the peace within the 
 county, in an action to be brought in the name of the city or 
 county. 
 
 Sec. 5. The supervisor shall report, under oath, to the city or 
 county authorities the names of all persons who shall have refused 
 or failed to comply with the provisions of this act. 
 
 Sec. 6. This being a case of emergency, this act shall take effect 
 and be in force from and after its passage. 
 
 In reference to bounty laws, the experience of Minnesota, 
 where they were in force in some counties in 1875, is val- 
 uable, and the State Commissioners did not hesitate to 
 recommend the system after the county trials, imperfect 
 as they were, and commenced as they were, in most cases, 
 too late in the season. It was clearly shown that in one 
 township $30,000 worth of crops was saved by an expendi- 
 ture of $6,000. Nicollet county paid $25,053 for 25,053 
 bushels of locusts, but the price paid by other counties 
 was higher ; in fact, much too high. A good law, once 
 enacted and on the statute books, might not be called into 
 operation for many years, but would beyond all doubt 
 serve an admirable purpose in the event of a locust inva- 
 sion. The following are what I conceive should be the 
 essential features of an efficient bounty law : 1 . The bounty 
 should he paid out of the State Treasury; or it should be 
 graded and borne equally, one-third by the local Township^ 
 one-third by the County^ and one-third by the State. 2. 
 The bounty shoidd be immediately available to those earn- 
 ing it. 3. The Act shoidd^ so far as possible^ tend to the 
 destruction of the eggs. 4. After the eggs^ the destruction 
 of the netoly -hatched locusts should be encouraged by the 
 Act. A bushel of the newly-hatched insects will contain 
 thirty or more times as many individuals as will a bushel 
 
186 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 of the pupre, and, moreover, their destruction prevents the 
 subsequent injury. It would be folly to pay sixty cents a 
 bushel for them later in the season when they are nearly 
 full-grown and have done most of the harm they are capa- 
 ble of doing. The price, therefore, should vary with the 
 season; and while, in latitude SO'', 75 cents or $1.00 should 
 be offered in March, the price should diminish to 50 cents 
 in April, 25 cents in May, and 10 cents in June. As the 
 dates of hatching vary with the latitude, so the law should 
 vary in the matter of dates, according to the requirements 
 of each particular State. In addition to the foregoing re- 
 quirements of such an act, every precaution should be 
 taken to prevent fraud and dishonesty in obtaining the 
 money. 
 
 The laws obliging proper labor will prove more bene- 
 ficial to a community than the bounty laws, and the labor 
 is best performed, first in destroying the eggs in the fall, 
 and next in destroying the young insects after the bulk of 
 them have hatched out in the spring. 
 
 In the more thinly settled parts of the country, laws may 
 be more or less ineffectual, so far as the general destruction 
 of the insects is concerned, though they will even there be 
 one of the best means of relieving destitution ; but in more 
 thickly settled sections they will accomplish both results. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LOCUST RAVAGES EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 RAVAGES OF MIGRATORY LOCUSTS IN THE ATLANTIC 
 STATES. 
 
 We have already seen how the true Rocky Mountain 
 Locust, which rarely reaches the Mississippi, may be dis- 
 tinguished from the Red-legged species, which often mixes 
 with it and is common to a much larger extent of country, 
 and reaches to the Atlantic. We have also seen that the 
 ravages of migratory locusts between the Mississippi and 
 the Rocky Mountains, and probably to the Pacific, are 
 confined to the one, long-winged species, (spretus). " How 
 then," will naturally be asked, " do you account for the 
 ravages of migratory locusts in the Atlantic States, since 
 swarms have been known in those States to fly over the 
 country and commit sad havoc, and since you tell us 
 that the Reg-legged species is incapable of such migra- 
 tions ? " This question, which was first properly answered 
 in my 7th Report, I will now proceed to elucidate. 
 
 As to migrating locusts doing great damage in some of 
 the Eastern States during certain years, there can be no 
 doubt of the fact. Harris, in his Treatise on Injurious 
 Insects, gives an account extracted from the Travels of 
 President Dwight, wherein they are recorded as being 
 most destructive in Vermont in 1797 and 1798, and as 
 collecting in clouds, rising in the air and taking extensive 
 flights — even covering persons employed in raising a 
 
 (187) 
 
188 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 church steeple, who, in such position, still saw the insects 
 flying far above their heads. He also quotes from Wil- 
 liamson's History of Maine, that in 1749 and 1754 they 
 were very numerous and voracious; that *'in 1743 and 
 1756 they covered the whole country and threatened to 
 devour everything green." Among the communications 
 which I received in 1874 was the following, descriptive of 
 locust ravages in New Hampshire : 
 
 Dear Sir: I see a note in the New York Tribune requesting 
 those from the hicust regions to send you specimens of the variety. 
 I send you a vial of them to-day by mail. They have been quite 
 plenty in the Merrimack Valley on some farms. Tliey have eaten 
 all of our garden vegetables; in others they left us a small share. 
 The small ones are the most plenty and tlie ones that have done the 
 most mischief. I should like to know if they are of the same 
 variety that infested the West. 
 
 Yours truly, LEWIS COLBY. 
 
 BoscAWEN, Merrimack Co., N. H., Sept. 17, 1874. 
 
 The following account by Dr. U. T. True of the appear- 
 ance of these insects in Cumberland county, Maine, in 1821, 
 is so circumstantial that I give it in full, as quoted by Mr. 
 S. H. Scudder:* 
 
 During the haying season the weather was dry ind hot, and these 
 hungry locusts stripped the leaves from the clover and herds-grass, 
 leaving nothing but the naked stems. In consequence, the hay- 
 crop was seriously diminished in value. So ravenous had they 
 become that tbey would attack clover, eating it into shreds. Rake 
 and pitchfork handles, made of white ash and worn to a glossy 
 smoothness by use, would be found nibbled over by them if left 
 within their reach. 
 
 As soon as the hay was cut and they had eaten every living thing, 
 they removed to the adjacent crops of gram, completely stripping 
 the leaves: climbing the naked stalks they would eat off the stems 
 of wheat and rye just below the head, and leave them to drop to 
 the ground. I well remember assisting in sweeping a large cord 
 over the heads of wheat after dark, causing the insects to drop to 
 the ground, where most of them would remain during the night. 
 During harvest time it was my painful duty, with a younger brother, 
 to pick up the fallen wheat heads for threshing; they amounted to 
 several bushels. 
 
 * Hayden's Report on the Geological Survey of Nebraska; and "The Distri- 
 bution of Insects in New Hampshire," p. 375. 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 189 
 
 Their next attack was upon the Indian corn and potatoes. They 
 stripped the leaves and ate out the silk from the corn, so that it was 
 rare to harvest a full ear. Among forty or fifty bushels of corn . 
 spread out in the coru-room, not an ear could be found not mottled 
 with detached kernels. 
 
 While thirse insects were more than usually abundant in the 
 town generally, it was in the field I have described that they 
 appeared in the greatest intensity. After they had stripped every- 
 thing from the field, they began to emigrate in countless numbers. 
 They crossed the highway and attacked the vegetable garden. I 
 remember the curious appearance of a large, flourishing bed of 
 red onions, whose tops they first literally ate up, and not content 
 with that, devoured the interior of the bulbs, leaving the dry exter- 
 nal covering in place. The provident care of my mother, who 
 covered the bed with chaff from the stable floor, did not save them, 
 while she was complimented the next year for so successfully sow- 
 ing the garden down to grass. The leaves were stripped from the 
 apple trees. They entered the house in swarms, reminding one of 
 the locusts of Egypt, and, as we walked, they would rise in count- 
 less numbers and fly away in clouds. 
 
 As the nights grew cooler they collected on the spruce and hem- 
 lock stumps and log fences, completely covering them, eating the 
 moss and decomposed surface of the wood, and leaving the surface 
 clean and new. They would perch on the west side of a stump, 
 where they could feel the warmth of the sun, and work around to 
 the east side in the morning as the sun reappeared. The foot-paths 
 in the fields were literally covered with their excrements. 
 
 During the latter part of Aueust and the first of September, when 
 the air was still dry, and for several days in succession a high wind 
 prevailed from the northwest, the locusts frequently rose in the air 
 to an immense height. By looking up at the sky in the middle of 
 a clear day, as nearly as possible in the direction of tlie sun, one 
 may descry a locust at a great height. These insects could thus be 
 seen in swarms, appenriug like so many thistle-blows, as they 
 expanded their wings and were borne along toward the sea before 
 the wind; myriads of them were drowned in Casco bay, and I 
 remember hearing that they frequently dropped on the decks of 
 coasting vessels. Cart loads of dead bodies remained in the fields, 
 forming in spots a tolerable coating of manure. 
 
 Mr. I. S. Smith says that he has seen " hackmatack trees 
 almost covered with them, and entirely stripped of their 
 leaves." * 
 
 All these accounts agree in referring the injury to the 
 common Red-legged Locust; but as I am fully persuaded 
 that this species, as found in Illinois and Missouri, is inca- 
 
 * Rep. Connecticut State Bd. of Agi-., 1872, p. 363. 
 
190 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 pable of any extended flight,* I could not help feeling that 
 some other species had been confounded with it, and had 
 played the part of migratory locust in the White Moun- 
 tain regions of Maine and New Hampshire. It was with 
 satisfaction, therefore, that, upon examining the locusts 
 sent me by Mr. Colby, I found them to belong to the 
 species defined in Chapter I, as Atlanis, which is smaller 
 than either the Rocky Mountain or the Red-legged species, 
 but in structure and relative length of wing much more 
 nearly resembles the former than the latter; in other words, 
 its relative length of wing enables it to fly with almost the 
 same facility as its Rocky Mountain congener. 
 
 INJURY FROAI OTHER, NON-MIGRATORY LOCUSTS. 
 
 Almost every year, in some part or other of the country, 
 we hear reports of injury by locusts. In 1868, for instance, 
 while the Rocky Mountain species was attracting attention, 
 as I have already stated, (p. 37), in many parts of the 
 West, other non-migratory species were extremely inju- 
 rious in the Mississippi Valley, and in the Eastern States. 
 In Ohio they appeared in countless myriads during that 
 year, and at the meeting of the Cincinnati Wine Growers' 
 Society it was stated that they invaded the vineyards, 
 destroying entire rows, defoliating the vines and sucking 
 out the juices of the berries. In the same year I saw them 
 in countless millions in many parts of Illinois and Missouri. 
 They actually stripped many corn-fields in these States, 
 and had not the crops been unusually abundant, would 
 have caused some suftering. They were very destructive 
 to flower and vegetable gardens. 
 
 * I do not meau by this that it is incapable of rising in the air; but 1 am quite 
 sure that as found in St. Louis county it is incapable of any such flights as sprttus 
 takes. In the higher parts of the country, whether East or West, the power of 
 flight may be greater. 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 191 
 
 In 1869, they were, if anything, worse than in 1868. I 
 xemember that in the vicinity of St. Louis, in addition to 
 their ordinary injuries, they stripped the tops of Norway 
 Spruce, Balsam Fir and Euro^jean Larch ; took the blos- 
 soms off Lima beans ; severed grape stems, and ate num- 
 erous holes into apples and peaches, thereby causing them 
 to rot. They were indeed abundant all over Illinois. 
 Missouri, Iowa, and even Kentucky ; but attracted no 
 attention East. 
 
 In 1871 they were again very destructive, especially 
 East, as the following items will show : 
 
 The grasshoppers (locusts) have been more numerous and de- 
 structive this year, in Maine, than perhaps ever before. This was 
 partly owing to the dry weather, and with the advent of the rainy 
 season we hope their career will be somewhat checked. In this 
 county they are thick, but in some of the central portions of the 
 State tliey literally swarm, devouring nearly every green thing 
 before lliem. They did much injury to the grass fields, and, now 
 that is cut, they have betaken themselves to the cultivated crops. 
 In some cases, whole fields of corn and beans have been completely 
 stripped. Even the potatoes have not been spared. — [Country 
 Gentleman, Aug. 10, 1871, speaking of Insects in Maine. 
 
 Grasshoppers are reported to have very seriously injured the 
 corn, grass and grain crops (and in some cases orchards and nur- 
 series) of the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Knox, Kennebec, 
 Lincoln, Oxford, Piscataquis, Penobscot, Waldo and Somerset, in 
 3Iaine. So serious has been the damage that the subject was made 
 a topic at the recent State Agricultural Convention in that State. 
 In Androscoggin county, they injured pastures greatly, and affected 
 the condition and price of stock. Some grain fields were protected 
 by drawing a rope across the heads at sunset, thus brushing ofi' the 
 insects and preventing feeding. In Franklin county, a field of 
 twelve acres of sweet corn was only saved by keeping a man in it 
 continually to drive out the grasshoppers. One man in York county 
 stopped their passage to liis fields hy building a brush fence around 
 them. — [American Agriculturist, 1871. 
 
 These pests (the locusts) have been numerous and destructive 
 during the past month, in some portions of the Eastern States. In 
 Sagadahoc county, Maine, the crop^ and pastures were injured by 
 them very much ; also in Hancock county. In Franklin, many 
 fields of grain were cut to save the crops from them and for feed- 
 ing. In Oxford, oats were " eaten entirely down, as clean as though 
 fed upon by sheep." In some portions of Plymouth county, Mass., 
 
192 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 they are reported to have eaten everything green. In Caledonia 
 county, Vermont, they have been very destructive. All through 
 Windsor they have been " a terrible scourge." In Orleans they 
 are reported abundant, and in Windham they have done " much in- 
 jury to some of the crops" In Waj'-ne county, Pennsylvania, also, 
 they are reported to have done much damage. — [Monthly Report 
 Dep. of Agr. for August and September, 1871. 
 
 In 1872 they were again injurious East : 
 
 The grasshoppers are making great havoc on the grass, grain 
 and corn. For a space of about one and a half miles square, they 
 are destroying almost everything. Clover is trimmed up all but the 
 head ; oat tields look like lields of rushes coming up to the height 
 of sixteen to eighteen inches witliout leaf or head. The leaves of 
 wheat and their kernels are eaten out. These hoppers move back 
 and forth two or three times a day, and whole sections are almost 
 alive with them. — [^Mirror and Farmer (New Hampshire), August 
 10, 1872. 
 
 In 1874, again, much injury by them was reported in the 
 Mississippi Valley and eastward, and a few extracts will 
 suffice to indicate how numerous they often were : 
 
 The grasshopers destroyed four acres of my wheat last fall ; ate 
 and destroyed my timothy twice ; sowed the ground again this 
 spring, but as there are still plenty of hoppers, there is not much 
 hope for a stand. — [Letter extract from G. Pauls, Eureka, Mo., 
 Nov. 10, 1874. 
 
 Some of our good friends in Suffolk county. Virginia, were un- 
 duly excited this summer over the idea that the Western destructive 
 grasshopper, Caloptenus spretus of Uhler, had found its way to the 
 "sacred soil of Virginia." There was no denying the fact that 
 myriads of grasshoppers were devouring nearly "every green 
 thing," even settling on the trunks and limbs of trees, and gnawing 
 the bark in a most unkind manner ; and as it appeared to be some- 
 thing altogether foreign to the locality, of course it must be the 
 Western pest. Specimens were forwarded to us, however, and a 
 glance was sufficient to show us there was no need for alarm, as it 
 was quite a common species in this part of the United States, and 
 though rather too plentiful in this particular locality, would not 
 spread or become the terror that its Western distant relative has 
 proved. The insect is known as the Acridium Aniericanum, and is 
 of large size, often measuring over two and a half inches in length. 
 — [C. R. Dodge, in Rural Carolinian, November, 1874. 
 
 In 1875, again, the indigenous species were very abun- 
 dant, and were often supposed to be the genuine spretus, the 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 193 
 
 young of wliicli were at the time devastating portions of 
 the West. The reports of this last in Jefferson, Franklin 
 and Moniteau counties in the Monthly Report of the De- 
 partment of Agriculture for November and December of 
 that year, undoubtedly refer to indigenous species, and are 
 a sample of the reliability of much of the entomological 
 information that comes through that channel. They were 
 troublesome not only in the Mississippi Valley, but in the 
 East, for I know that they did great damage to oats and 
 meadows in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the following 
 items doubtless refer to Atlanis and femur-rubrum, and 
 will show how injurious they were in Massachusetts : 
 
 Gbasshoppers in Boston. — We did not anticipate that Boston 
 proper would ever be inconvenienced by the pests which have 
 proved so destructive out West, but it is a tact that grasshoppers are 
 so numerous at the South End that they destroy the flowers in the 
 back yards to such an extent that hens are hired or bought to clear 
 the premises and save the ornamental plants which adorn the prem- 
 ises. These insects are not of the western pattern, but are native 
 productions. If their ravages continue, it is possible some of our 
 western friends will be called upon to rai=e subscriptions for the 
 relief of the floriculturists of Boston. — [Boston Journal. 
 
 I venture to ask your advice in a grasshopper matter. Three 
 y^ears ago a party of farmers and others in this commonwealth, tired 
 of granite hills, gravel banks and sand flats, and wishing some little 
 latent fertility in the original soil — combined to effect, and did effect, 
 the reclamatiou from the sea of about 1400 acres of what originally 
 was ' salt marsh.' We are amply satisfied of the fertility of this 
 land, and so far, all is good. Last summer, however, this land and 
 adjoining territory was scourged with a plague of locusts or grass- 
 hoppers. Whether they came in such numbers owing to the diking 
 of these 1400 acres, or whether they would, last year, have come in 
 equal numbers whether the marsh was diked or not, we can not say. 
 Our question is this, and is at the same time the point upon which 
 we pray your advice : Can we do anything to diminish the number 
 of these pests for next year ? We could, for example, flood this 
 whole tract of land until early spring. Would this be advisable ? 
 Any points you would be kind enough to give us on the matter, 
 would be thankfully received. — [Letter from C. Herschel, Boston, 
 Mass., latter part of October. 
 
 Tn short, during hot and dry years, which are favorable 
 to the multiplication of crickets and locusts, more or less 
 13 
 
194 
 
 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 injury is done in all parts of the country, by species 
 indigenous to the different localities, but which in ordinary 
 seasons do not attract any special attention. 
 
 The principal depredator in such cases, in the Mississippi 
 Valley, is the wide-spread Red-legged Locust, already 
 
 [Fig. 3T.1 
 
 Differential Locust. 
 
 described and illustrated, (p. 14), and so often confounded 
 with the true migrating Rocky Mountain species. The 
 next most injurious is the Differential Locust {Galoptenus 
 differentialis^WdXk., Fig.37), a species at once distinguished 
 in the more typical specimens, from the preceding, not only 
 by its larger size, but by its brighter yellow and green colors. 
 The head and thorax are olive-brown, and the front wings 
 very much of the same color, and, without other marks, have 
 a brownish shade at base, the hind wings being tinged with 
 green; the hind thighs are bright yellow, especially below, 
 with the four black marks as in spretus, and the hind shanks 
 [ Fig. .38 ] are yellow, with 
 
 black spines, and 
 a black ring near 
 the base. Next 
 
 Two-STKiPED Locust. 
 
 m injuriousness 
 comes the Two- 
 striped Locust, 
 {Caloptemis bivit- 
 tatus, Say, Fig. 38), also a larger species, of a dull, olive- 
 green color, the hind thighs conspicuously yellow beneath, 
 and with two yellow lines extending from above the eyes 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 195 
 
 along each side of the thorax superiorly, and thence, more 
 distinctly on the front wings, narrowing and approaching 
 toAvard their tips, when closed. All these species belong to 
 the same genus as our Rocky Mountain Locust, and, except 
 in being unable to sustain long-continued flight,* agree 
 with it in habit. 
 
 There are several locusts belonging to other genera which 
 are common over large areas fi'om the Atlantic to the 
 Mississippi; and some of them, belonging to the genera 
 Acridium and (Edipoda have relatively longer wings than 
 the common Red-legged Locust, and consequently greater 
 power of flight. Yet they are seldom as injurious as the 
 short- winged Calopteni just enumerated, and the swarming 
 oi Acridium Americanum (our largest species), as present- 
 ly described and as recorded in the paragraph from the 
 Rural Carolinian, {ante, p. 192), is quite exceptional. 
 
 LOCUST FLIGHTS IN ILI-INOIS IN 1875. 
 
 The manner in which some writers have clung to the 
 idea that the Rocky Mountain Locust must overrun Mis- 
 souri, Illinois, and the States to the East, in spite of oppos- 
 ing facts, can be accounted for only by inordinate love of 
 magnifying possible danger and of making as much of a 
 sensation as possible out of any misfortune that befalls a 
 community. A certain amount of apprehension is pardon- 
 able ; and that, under such apprehension, all sorts of 
 
 * Their power to sustain flight will increase as we approach the higher and drier 
 western country toward the mountains, and, I believe, according as the season of 
 their growth in any part of the country is hot and dry. The colors, also, become 
 brighter and lighter as we go west, with a tendency to increase of wing-length, 
 and a diminution of body-bulk. This is very noticeable in traveling over the 
 Western plains, where bivittatvs, for instance, which, ordinarily, is far more de- 
 structive than spretus is to gardens in Western Kansas and Colorado, loses much 
 of Its dull, olive-green color, and is brighter- and lighter-colored and longer- 
 winged, on an average, than at St. Louis. 
 
196 Tlie Rocky Mountam Locust. 
 
 insects, some of them having no relation to locusts, should 
 be mistaken for the Rocky Mountain pest, is natural with 
 persons who have had no acquaintance with it, and are 
 unfamiliar with its appearance. In Sept. of 1875, many- 
 prominent papers of the West gave the news that the 
 dreaded swarms had finally come into Illinois. In jjoint 
 of fact, large swarms of locusts did pass over the central 
 portion of that State, early in September, and more par- 
 ticularly over parts of Livingston, McLean, Vermillion, 
 Ford, and Champaign counties. Small and scattered 
 flights were also seen later in the month. Some writers 
 jumped to the conclusion that said swarms were of the 
 Rocky Mountain species, without, however, giving a par- 
 ticle of proof. There is nothing absolutely impossible in 
 the occurrence of scattering swarms of the genuine spretiis 
 in Illinois the year following a general invasion such as 
 we had in 18'74 ; for while I have expressed the opinion 
 that the species will never do any damage east of the 94th 
 meridian, I have admitted that it may temporarily extend 
 to some distance beyond that line. But in 1875 we had 
 no reports of swarms passing over the country to the 
 Northwest or the northwest part of Illinois, prior to their 
 occurrence in the middle counties, and I felt so confident 
 that the swarms were composed of indigenous species, that 
 I so stated my belief in the Chicago Evening Journal of 
 Sept. 9th of that yfear, and expressed the opinion that they 
 had originated within the borders of the State ; tliat there 
 was no occasion for alarm, and that they would scarcely 
 be heard of after they settled. These opinions were subse- 
 quently justified by the facts ; for after taking every pains 
 to ascertain the truth, all specimens from such flights, 
 examined by competent persons, proved to be indigenous 
 species. We heard nothing of their ravages or of their 
 rising again and passing over the country to the south or 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 197 
 
 east. Moreover, their flight seems to have been irregular, 
 and poorly sustained. Mr. H. P. Beach, County Judge of 
 Ford county, 111., in sending me specimens, wrote, Sep- 
 tember 15 : 
 
 About ten days ago, myriads of grasshoppers flew southward 
 over town. Many of them came down, evidently unable to keep up 
 the journey. They seemed to be all the way from a hundred feet 
 to a quarter or half a mile high, or perhaps very much higher. In 
 looliing up toward the sun — the only way they could be seen — the 
 appearance was much like that of a snow-storm looked at in tlie 
 same wa}^ We have pot heard from them since, and of course can 
 give you no idea from "whence they cometh and whither they 
 goeth." 
 
 Mr. B. F, Johnson, the Champaign (III) correspondent 
 of ihe' Country Gentleman., who supposed the species to be 
 spretus, also in speaking of these flights, wrote to that 
 paper (Sept. 10, 1875) : 
 
 When first seen, their movements and motions were so unlike 
 whnt I had conceived their flights to be, that it was not till several 
 disabled or partially exhausted insects had been caught, and then* 
 identity with the Kansas species demonstrated, that I was convinced 
 of their true character. I had supposed that these creatures flew 
 in a manner as pigeons and ducks and geese do — straight ahead in 
 a given direction, and with a purpose. On the contrary, eveiy 
 insect seemed to be out on a holiday, and acting independently of 
 all the others. While the vast mass slowly moved south, with an 
 inclination toward the east, there was a constant circular movement 
 of a vast majority of the whole number of individuals. * * * 
 When it got noised abroad that they were flying, the fact produced 
 a startling sensation. Would they increase in nurabors till the sun 
 was darkened, and then descend and devour up every green thing, 
 and leave eggs for a progeny behind them that would repeat the 
 disaster next summer ? These fears were speedily dispelled when 
 their numbers were seen to diminish, and when it was considered 
 that all the grasshoppers which had passed over, did they come 
 down could make but small impression on the ten thousand square 
 miles of corn in Central Illinois. 
 
 Actual examination of specimens from these flying bev- 
 ies over Illinois, showed them to have been composed of 
 three species, viz., the Red-legged, the Atlantic and the 
 Diflerential locusts : in no instance was a specimen of 
 
198 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 sjjretus seen. The several specimens obtained from Ford 
 county were all Atlanis / a single specimen received horn 
 Mr. H, J. Dunlap, of Champaign, was a male feniur- 
 rubricm ; while specimens taken by Prof. Burrill, of the 
 Industrial University, at the same place, as well as others 
 from Norwood, Mercer county, sent to Prof. Thomas, were 
 differentialis. The parties capturing these specimens are 
 not apt to fall into error, and are all positive that the 
 specimens submitted were from the flying bevies. 
 
 From these facts it results that two species, viz., femur- 
 ruhrum and dijferentialis, though normally having no 
 migratory habit, and, as I believe, incapable of extended 
 flights, can actually assist in such flights. That the bulk 
 of these Illinois swarms was composed, however, of At- 
 lanis, scarcely admits of a doubt. The other two, less 
 able to sustain lengthened flight, would naturally be most 
 near the ground and most often captured ; while Aikinis, 
 which we now know to occur in this part of the country 
 as well as East, and to often display the migratory habit, 
 would fly higher. 
 
 There are two facts which it will be well to boar in mind 
 in this connection, as explaining the above phenomena. 
 The first is, that Atlanis was very common in Missouri, 
 even in fields where it had never been noticed before. It 
 prevailed to such an extent in Illinois, that around Carbon- 
 dale Prof. Thomas could not find a single specimen of the 
 tj inca,\ femur-rubrum, and there was not a single specimen 
 of it among a number which he caused to be collected for 
 me. 
 
 The second fact is, that clijfere)itialis was also unusually 
 abundant. A letter from Mr. M. Brinkerhoft', of Onarga, 
 Illinois, dated October 18, 1875, and accompanied by speci- 
 mens, describes them as in great numbers there, filling the 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. .199 
 
 ground with their eggs.* The following, which refers to 
 the same species, is also interesting : 
 
 While the migrating hopper committed such devastation west of 
 us, we here at Bluft'ton have the manor-born, in immense numbers. 
 A patch of potatoes and some sweet corn seemed in danger of being 
 consumed, when a flock of purple grackles, our crow blackbird, as 
 it is usually called, came to our rescue. The few days that they have 
 visited the patch has thinned out the hoppers amazingly. I never 
 before noticed that this bird was so useful in this respect ; and jis 
 they are plenty, we may expect to be rid of the big grey fellows 
 (hoppers). They are more than twice the size of the Colorado hop- 
 per, and are nearly as bad on a crop when plenty. What saved our 
 little crop from utter destruction was an open field of land thickly 
 covered with wild chamomile, upon which they fairly swarmed. 
 On this we saw them as thick as the Colorados, in Sedalia or War- 
 rensburg. — [S. Miller, in Rural World, August 14, 1875. 
 
 Though unusually common, yet cUfferentialis, if I may 
 judge from my own experience in our fields and around 
 Chicago, that year, compared only as one to fifty with 
 Atlanis, and it is doubtful if it formed a larger proportion 
 of the flights. How are these exceptional migrations of 
 local species to be explained ? We know, from what has 
 preceded, that they have occurred at intervals in the East, 
 and we now have evidence that they may occur in any 
 part of the country ; and indeed local swarms were not 
 confined to Illinois in 1875, as they were also noticed in 
 Kentucky. I think the explanation is simple. The ex- 
 cessively hot, dry years of 1873 and 1874 permitted the 
 undue multiplication of these native species, and they 
 were already very troublesome in the latter year, {ante, 
 p. 192). The myriads that hatched out in 1875 were 
 
 * The eggs of Caloptenus differentialis may be distinguished from those of 
 spreitcs by the larger and more irregular size of the mass ; by the greater num- 
 ber composing it ; by the somewhat larger size of the individual egg, which meas- 
 nies 0.10— 0."22 inch in length ; by the coarser reticulations of the shell, and by the 
 brown color of the gummy fibrous matter that is intermixed with them and glues 
 them together. The color of the egg varies from yellow to deep cameous, the 
 latter prevailing, and the posterior or narrower end is always somewhat constricted 
 and darker. 
 
200 The RocJcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 scarcely noticed at first, and made little impression on the 
 luxuriant vegetation that a wet and favorable season pro- 
 duced. By September, when a spell of dry weather cured 
 the grass and the locusts had acquired full growth, we can 
 imagine that they swarmed in much of the prairie country 
 of Central Illinois. Whenever they abound to an unusual 
 degree the migrating instinct is developed, just as it is 
 under like circumstances in many other insects, as butter- 
 flies and beetles, that are normally non-migratory. 
 The reasons we can only surmise ; but aside from 
 those of hunger, etc., previously suggested, the an- 
 noyance and inconvenience to which the females, while 
 attempting to oviposit, have to submit from their com- 
 panions, under conditions of excessive increase, may 
 have something to do with it. But mere increase in 
 numbers would not give to species like femur -ruhruni 
 and differ entialisy which are ordinarily heavy-bodied 
 and short winged, the power of extended flight ; and 
 there is little doubt, in my mind, that the same excep- 
 tionally hot, dry seasons which i^ermit this undue multi- 
 plication also modify the individuals, and cause a decrease 
 in bulk and increase in wing-power. The facts support 
 this view, for the flying specimens of diff'erentialis sent to 
 Prof. Thomas had, as he writes me, "the body lighter 
 and the wings longer, and some of that peculiar fierce ai> 
 pearance belonging to migrating specimens ; " and I have 
 specimens from Kansas and Minnesota which differ so 
 much in these respects from the more normal specimens as 
 found at St. Louis in ordinary seasons, that they can scarcely 
 be recognized as the same species. The casual observer 
 knows how thoroughly plants are modified in size and 
 habit by season and condition : the same holds true of in- 
 sects, and more particularly in certain groups. 
 
 Given that over the vast prairie region of Central Illi- 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 201 
 
 nois, the insects were as thick as I found them in many 
 fields around St. Louis, where every step would cause two 
 or three hundred to rise ; and let this migratory instinct 
 be developed, and the mystery of the Illinois flights van- 
 ishes. They are exceptional local phenomena : they are 
 neither so strong nor so long sustained as those of the 
 Rocky Mountain species ; nor are they in any sense to be 
 so much dreaded. 
 
 In short, whenever the climate and conditions in the 
 Mississippi Valley approach those existing in the native 
 home of the Rocky Mountain Locust, some of our native 
 species, and especially those nearest akin to it, also ap- 
 proach it in habit. If the climate of Illinois and Mis- 
 souri were to permanently change in that direction, these 
 species would become permanently modified ; but as there 
 is no immediate danger of such a contingency, the Rocky 
 Mountain Locust is the only species, here considered, that 
 can properly lay claim to the migratory habit. 
 
 LOCUST FLIGHTS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 To the unscientific mind there are few things more dif- 
 ficult of apprehension than that species, whether of plants 
 or animals, should be limited in geographical range to 
 areas not separated from the rest of the country by any 
 very marked barriers, or by visible demarcations. Yet such 
 is the fact, known to every naturalist ; and the geograph- 
 ical distribution of species forms at once one of the most 
 interesting and one of the most important studies in natural 
 history. Some species have a very limited, others a very 
 wide range ; and while in the course of time — in the lapse 
 of centuries or ages — the limits have altered in the jiast 
 and will alter in the future, they are, for all practical pur- 
 poses, permanent in present time. These limits may in 
 fact, lor the purpose of illustration, be likened to those 
 
202 The Rocky Mountain Locitst. 
 
 which sepai-ate different nations. Though frequently 
 divided by purely imaginary lines, the nations of Europe, 
 with their peculiar customs and languages, are well defined. 
 Along the borders where two nations join, there is some- 
 times more or less commingling ; at other times the line 
 of demarkation is abrupt ; and in no case could emigrants 
 from the one, long perpetuate their peculiarities unchanged 
 in the midst of the other. Yet in the battle of nations, 
 the lines have changed, and the map of Euro^^e has often 
 been remodeled. So it is with species. On the borders 
 of the areas not abi-uptly defined, to which species are 
 limited, there is more or less modification from the typical 
 characters and habits ; while in the struggle of species 
 for supremacy, the limits may vary in the course of time. 
 The difference is, that the boundaries of nations result 
 from human rather than from natural agencies, while those 
 of species result chiefly from the latter, and are therefore 
 more permanent. These remarks apply of course to 
 species in a natural state, and where their range is unin- 
 fluenced either directly or indirectly by civilized man. 
 
 I found some difliculty, at the Conference of Governors 
 at Omaha to consider the locust problem, in satisfying 
 those present that the Rocky Mountain Locust could not 
 permanently thrive in the country indicated by green in 
 Plate I. of this work, and that there was no danger of its 
 ever extending so as to do serious damage east of a line 
 drawn a little west of the center of Iowa. They could 
 not see what there was to prevent the pest from overrun- 
 ning the whole country, and thought that Congress should 
 be appealed to, not only on behalf of the country that 
 has suflered from its ravages, but on behalf, also, of the 
 whole country that is threatened thereby. 
 
 Having already discussed the native home of the species, 
 and the conditions which prevent its permanent settlement 
 
Locust Ravages East of the Mississippi. 203 
 
 in the country to which it is not native, it is unnecessary 
 here to go into detail on these points. Briefly, the species 
 is at home and can come to perfection only in the high 
 and dry regions of the Noi'thwest, where the winters are 
 long and cold and the summers short ; and whenever it 
 migrates and oversweeps the country to the South or 
 Southeast, in which it is not indigenous, the changed con- 
 ditions are such that the first generation hatched out in 
 that (to it) unnatural climate, either forsakes it on the 
 wing or perishes from debility, disease and general deteri- 
 oration. On the soundness of this conclusion depends 
 the future welfare of most of the more fertile States be- 
 tween the Mississippi and the mountains, and science, as 
 well as past experience, shows it to be sound. Upon this 
 hypothesis the people of nearly the whole country, so 
 scourged during the past few years, may console them- 
 selves that the evil is but temporary : they may have 
 to fight their tiny foe most desperately for a short time, 
 but they nevertheless have the assurance that even if he 
 prove master of the field, he will vacate in time to, in 
 all probability, allow of good crops of some of the staples, 
 and that he may not return again for years. On the 
 other hypothesis — for which there is only apparent, and 
 no real reason — ruin stares them inevitably in the face. 
 
 The causes which limit the eastward flight of the winged 
 swarms that come fi'om the Northwest are, with the ma- 
 jority of people, still more difficult to appreciate ; for 
 most persons can see no reason why a swarm that over- 
 runs the western portions of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri, 
 should not extend to the eastern borders of the same 
 States, or into Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and eastward. 
 Having previously considered the more occult climatic 
 influences that bear on the belief that they never will, I 
 need only state here, that the principal arguments rest in 
 
204 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 the facts that — 1st, the power of flight of any insect that 
 has a limited winged existence, must somewhere find a 
 limit ; ^d, that all past experience has shown that Calop- 
 tenus spretus has never extended, in a genei'al way, beyond 
 the limit indicated, and that as long as the present average 
 conditions of wind and climate and of timber-distribution 
 prevail, it is reasonable to suppose that it never will. 
 
 One of the principal difficulties in the way of a proper 
 apprehension of the facts, is found in the failure, in the 
 popular mind, to discriminate between species. The ordi- 
 nary newspaper writer talks of the grasshopper, or the 
 locust, as though all over the country and all over the 
 world there was but one and the same species. One of 
 the Governors present at the Conference referred to, was 
 at first fully of the belief that our Rocky Mountain pest 
 came all the way from Asia. In the case of this destruc- 
 tive species, even some entomologists have added to the 
 difliculty by erroneously claiming that it is common all 
 over the country to the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 The above thoughts were suggested by the following 
 reports, that met my eye, in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 
 24th of October, 1876, from Dayton and Hamilton, re- 
 spectively, in the State of Ohio: 
 
 The advent of Kansas grasshoppers, over Sunday and until 
 Monday evening, in great numbers throughout the city, is a most 
 remarkable incident. Thej^ were found early Sunday morning, 
 and left, as suddenly as they came, on Monday eveuiug. 
 
 A shower of mammoth grasshoppers came down upon our town 
 and vicinity on Saturday night. We have never seen such large 
 ones before, and we understand from old citizens, that they are 
 entire strangers in this part of the country. We saw a boy have a 
 string tied to two of them (which were as long as a man's finger) 
 trying to drive them, and he succeeded pretty well. 
 
 A flock of grasshoppers alighted in Hamilton abput 11 o'clock 
 on Saturday night, from the northwest. Those that were not 
 drowned in the river or killed by the heavy rain, were probably 
 gobbled up before Sunday night by the chickens. 
 
Locust Re varies East of the Mississippi. 205 
 
 Such reports as these very naturally confirm the unsci- 
 entific in the idea that the locust plague of the West, or 
 so-called " Kansas grasshopper," has overstepped the limits 
 entomology ascribes to it, and is upsetting the conclusions 
 which I have come to. The same swarm passed over 
 Oxford in the same State, in a southwesterly direction, 
 and fortunately that veteran and well-known apiarian, the 
 Rev. L, L. Langstroth, who has not forgotten to be a close 
 observer, had specimens sent to me. They proved to be 
 the American Acridium already figured and described on 
 page 101, (Fig. 15). It has a wide range, hibernates in 
 the winged condition, and not only difiers in size and 
 habits from the Rocky Mountain Locust, but entomologi- 
 cally is as widely separated from it as a sheep is from a 
 cow. It is a sjDCcies common over the country every year, 
 and during exceptional years becomes excessively numer- 
 ous and acquires the migratory habit, its wings being long 
 and well adapted to flying. As I learn from Dr. S. Miller, 
 of Franklin, it passed in swarms over part of Johnson 
 county, Missouri, late in September ; and it was every- 
 where abundant in 1876. 
 
 The following extracts from letters of correspondents 
 refer to this species : 
 
 I send you by Mr. Shaw a small package containing specimens 
 of locusts, destructive about Chattanooga and in all Eastern Ten- 
 nessee. They strike me as nearly allied to the Rocky Mountain 
 Locust; fly with the same nnise and shine of wings, in large shoals, 
 but are larger. — [Dr. G. Engelmann, Warm Springs, N. C, Aug. 29, 
 187G. 
 
 We have a locust here which has in some places occurred in 
 considerable numbers, and some people think it the same as the 
 one which has produced so much damage in the West. This I 
 dimbt, as it is evidently a native species. — [E. M. Pendleton, Prof, 
 of Agriculture, Univ. of Ga., Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 14, 1876. 
 
 The American Acridium visited us on the night of November 
 21, (Saturday.) A rain fell during the night. Cambridge City, 
 Indiana, was also visited by them on the same niglit. — [Herschel I. 
 Fisher, Eastham College, Richmond, lud. 
 
206 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Toward the end of July the unfledged insects did an 
 immense amount of damage to the cotton and other crops 
 of Georgia and South Carolina. The papers were full of 
 graphic accounts of their destruction, and not only did 
 editors very generally take for granted that they had to do 
 with the western spretus, but Mr. T. P. Janes, Commis- 
 sioner of Agriculture for Georgia, in his circular No. 27, 
 supposed they were the same. Specimens which he subse- 
 quently sent me, however, at once revealed their true 
 character. 
 
 The damage done by some of the more common locusts 
 that occur over the country, is, let me repeat, sometimes 
 very great, esi^ecially during hot, dry years. In some of 
 the New England States their ravages have, in restricted 
 localities, fairly equaled those of the voracious sj)retus of 
 the West. But while a few of them, in exceptional circum- 
 stances, develop the migratory habit, they never have, and 
 in all probability never will, compare with Oalojitenus 
 spretus in the vastness of its migrations and in its immense 
 power for injury over extensive areas. 
 
 Whenever we hear of locust flights east of the Missis- 
 sippi, we may rest satisfied that they are not of our Rocky 
 Mountain pest, and are comparatively harmless. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 
 
 NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 Regarding the popular name of our insect, there is great 
 lack of uniformity in the terms by which it is designated, 
 and many of my readers, who have been accustomed to 
 hearing these insects very generally called " grasshoppers," 
 will doubtless wonder why I have not followed common 
 usage. In America, the terra " Grasshopper " is very gen- 
 erally employed for these insects, but should be abandoned 
 for that of " Locust," which is applied to similar species in 
 nearly all other parts of the world, the " locusts " of Scrip- 
 ture being very closely allied species. As I have already 
 said (6th Mo. Ent. Rep., p. 153, note) : 
 
 It is to be regretted that American entomological writers do not 
 more strictly follow Harris in conforining to the English custom of 
 calling these insects — with short antennse and stridulating by means 
 of the stout hind legs — by the popular term of " locusts ;" this 
 being in keeping with ancient usage. The term "grasshopper" 
 would then be confined to the long-horned and long-legged, green 
 group, stridulating solely with the wings, in which the species are 
 more solitary and never congregate in Bwarms, and in which the 
 female is invariably provided with a sword or cimiter-shaped ovi- 
 positor ; while the term Katydid could be used to designaie the few 
 larger, tree-inhabiting speciesof .the group, so designated by Harris. 
 Where the habit of calling the Cicada " Locust," and the "Locust" 
 of ancient usage "Grasshopper," is so inveterate as in this country, 
 It is not easy to change it ; but it seems to me that the change is 
 desirable, and if popular authors would only continue the example 
 of Harris, the chance would come about with the greater dissemi- 
 nation of entumological information. 
 
 Almost every entomological -author has been under the 
 necessity, at one time or another, of insisting that the 
 " Grasshopper " of this country is the " Locust " of Europe 
 
 ( 207 ) 
 
208 The Bocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 and of antiquity ; or of endeavoring to clear up the con- 
 fusion which results fi-om the popular application of this 
 last term to the Periodical Cicada or Harvest-fly — an 
 insect (Fig. 39) which dwells, in its early life, under 
 [Fig. 39.] ground, and feeds by sucking the sap of 
 trees, and which is no more capable, like the 
 true locust, of devastating our grain fields 
 than a calf is of killing and devouring our 
 sheep. Yet the ceaseless preaching about 
 the popular misapi^lication of these terms 
 will avail nothing so long as the popular 
 error is encouraged by the preachers them- 
 selves adopting the misapplication. The 
 popular names of a country should be 
 respected as much as possible, especially for 
 obiects peculiar to the country, and I would 
 
 Cicada, or mis- , , , , , ,, n 
 
 called locust: with be the last to try and change them tor 
 
 one wins; removed, . . , i ^ • ^i • • ^ 
 
 so us to show the trivial rcasons; but when, as in this instance, 
 
 beak and ovipos- , , „ . • • ^i i i 
 
 iter. the name used lor centuries in the older 
 
 countries, and become familiar as household words through 
 the widely disseminated Scriptures, is supplanted by a new 
 one, and transferred to an entirely difierent insect, there 
 is no excuse for perpetuating the popular error. 
 
 We may talk of sliij)ping a car-load, and of the suit's 
 rising ^ixovcL now till doomsday; and, though, to the intelli- 
 gent and hypercritical mind the expressions will ever savor 
 of incorrectness, no one is foolfsh enough to try and reform 
 them, because they are universal, wherever the English 
 language is spoken. Change in universal and long estab- 
 lished customs is neither possible, as a rule, nor advisable; 
 and it is doubtful if any reform could be brought about in 
 our present Gregorian calendar, for instance, even if the 
 advantage of regulating the divisions of the year by the 
 astronomical conditions of the earth's orbit could be fully 
 
General Considerations. 209 
 
 established. But in a case like that of the use of the 
 terms Locust and Grasshopper, the former, as applied to 
 our Rocky Moiintain plague and its allies, has every claim 
 to favor, not only because of its having been longer used, 
 and of its now being more universally used than the latter; 
 but because it has a definite meaning and agrees with the 
 old systematic name of the family to which the species 
 belongs ; while the term " grasshopper " is most loosely 
 applied to almost every field insect that hops. The term 
 locust is, in fact, supposed by many to be derived from the 
 Latin words /ocr^s Ms«?<s, signifying a burnt place, and refer- 
 ring to the desolation, as if by fire, which these insects 
 cause. 
 
 The trivial terms "Colorado," " Red-legged," and " Hate- 
 ful" have been applied to the species by various writers; 
 but the name " Rocky Mountain Locust," which I have 
 employed, is expressive of the insect's habitat and least 
 open to objection. 
 
 Regarding the scientific name of our insect, it is only 
 necessary to add, in addition to what has already been said, 
 that it belongs to the modern genus Melano23lus of Still, 
 but just as this author's subdivisions of certain genera in 
 Coleoptera are not accepted or recognized by many of our 
 best coleopterists, so Melanojylus is not considered as of 
 generic value by some of our best orthopterists ; for which 
 reason I have used the better known and well established 
 genus Caloptemis. The specific name spretus (meaning 
 despised) indicates that, as a species, it was long over- 
 looked by entomologists, and confounded with feniur- 
 rubrum. 
 
 PRAIRIE KIKi:S vs. LOCUST RAVAGES. 
 
 The statement has been made, and advocated with con- 
 siderable ingenuity, that the visitations of the Rocky 
 14 
 
210 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Moiintain Locust are due to the practice of burning oif 
 the dry grass of our Western prairies. All the arguments 
 in this direction, however plausible at first sight, will not 
 bear the test of close scrutiny. The theory is that burning 
 the grass is the occasion of drouth, and that locusts come 
 only in drouthy seasons. One writer in the Katuas Fanner 
 for Sept. 23d, 1874, even asserts that "the unbroken 
 succession of curses " that have afilicted that State, " all 
 spring from the one first grand cause, the burning of the 
 prairie grasses," and, after explaining that hot, scorching 
 winds and simoons originate in desert countries, he avers 
 that " it matters not whether the country is an original 
 desert, or whether it is made so by the action of our 
 Western prairie fires. For all present purposes the two 
 are reduced to a common level and produce a common 
 result — drouth, hot winds and locusts." 
 
 The reason given why the locusts can come only in 
 drouthy seasons, is, that they can not fly in a moist 
 atmosphere, and the facts that they do not readily fly 
 early in the morning, and that the farther east you go, or, 
 in othtfr words, the more moist the atmosphere becomes, 
 the insects diminish in number and consequent power for 
 liarm. 
 
 As such views are by no means uncommon in the West, 
 I will give my several reasons for believing that there is 
 110 connection whatever between prairie fires and locust 
 ravages. 
 
 1. It is by no means proved that the simoons which 
 occasionally sweep over our Western States and Territories 
 have their origin in any part of that vast prairie country. 
 Some of the more local of these hot, dry winds may origi- 
 nate or acquire their peculiarly high temperature on the 
 mauvaises terres of Wyoming or the table lands of Arizona 
 and Mexico; but the more general simoons most probably 
 
Oeneral Considerations. 211 
 
 have their origin at a far greater distance from us, viz., in 
 the tropics. These simoons in Missouri always blow from 
 the southwest, in Kansas from south-southwest, and in 
 Eastern Colorado south, or a few points east of south; 
 and their injurious and scorching effects are not infre- 
 quently felt before the frost in Kansas and the country to 
 the west is fairly out of the ground. 
 
 2. It is well known that the buffalo grass ranges over a 
 vast extent of our Western plains, and that it does not 
 furnish a very dense or thorough covering, even when 
 unburned, and assists very little in retaining moisture or 
 preventing evaporation. 
 
 .3. My own observations for the past seventeen years in 
 this Western prairie country lead me to the conclusion 
 that fires more often succeed than precede drouth, and that 
 they may more justly be looked upon as a result than as a 
 cause of excessive dry weather; and the prevailing belief 
 that large conflagrations or extensive fires are conducive 
 to rain, bears on this point. 
 
 4. Whenever grass is burned during the growing 
 season, the old and drier blade is soon succeeded by a green 
 and succulent one, which has far greater power to attract 
 and retain moisture; while if burned in winter time the 
 evaporation from the soil can be thereby but slightly 
 affected, because of the weakened power of the sun, and 
 the snows which usually cover and protect. 
 
 5. Drouths are by no means confined to that portion of 
 the country subject to the locust invasions. 
 
 6. The reason why locusts are more sluggish and less 
 inclined to fly at morn than at noon is not so much a ques- 
 tion of the comparative density of the atmosphere as of 
 the difference in temperature. All diurnal insects are 
 sluggish in the cool of the morning, and their activity 
 increases with the rising of the thermometer; and flight, 
 
212 Tlie Roclqi Mountain Locust. 
 
 whether of bird or insect, is, I conceive, easier, aeteris 
 paribus, in a dense than in an attenuated atmosphere. 
 
 7. As the Rocky Mountain Locust multiplies contigu- 
 ously in the Rocky Mountain region, its descent into the 
 plains to the east where it can not permanently thrive, 
 can not well be aflected by the burning of the grass on those 
 plains. 
 
 From what has preceded I think we may safely conclude 
 that the non-burning of the prairies will have no effect in 
 preventing locust injuries, but that, on the contrary, as 
 shown in Chapter VIII, the judicious burning of such 
 prairies at the proper time is most beneficial and highly to 
 be commended. 
 
 Indeed, there is only one way in which there can be any 
 real connection between the burning of prairies and the 
 ravages of the Rocky Mountain Locust, and that connec- 
 tion is through the remote past, and altogether beyond our 
 present controL In the report of the Chief Signal Officer 
 to the War Department for 1872, will be found an inter- 
 esting account of the great fires of 1871 in the North- 
 west, in which the late Prof. J. A. Lapham, of Milwaukee, 
 Wis., maintains that our extensive Western prairies and 
 plains owe their existence and origin to the agency of fire. 
 These fires, encouraged by drouth, and either kindled by 
 accident or intention, have swept over the country for 
 ages, and while they leave the roots of the grass uninjured, 
 they destroy the germs of most other plants, including 
 forest trees; and Mr. Lapham pictures to himself a long- 
 past struggle between forest and prairie, in which the 
 latter, by the assistance of the Fire King, has gained and 
 held the vantage ground. 
 
 While I do not agree with Prof, Lapham that the 
 remote cause of our prairies can be attributed to fire, yet 
 no one can doubt its agency at the present time in main- 
 
General Considerations. 218 
 
 taining these prairies and preventing timber growth in 
 the more humid portions of the great prairie region. 
 But on Prof. Lapham's hypothesis there would naturally 
 be a connection in the past between fires and locusts; for 
 if Avathout fires this whole prairie region had been tim- 
 bered, the locusts, which are essentially insects of the 
 plains and prairies, could never have become so prodig- 
 iously abundant and injurious. On such a hypothesis alone 
 can I see any possible connection between prairie fires and 
 locust invasions, and, however much truth there may be in 
 the hypothesis, the fact remains that there is no present 
 connection between the two phenomena. 
 
 FASTING AND PRAYER. 
 
 During great calamities, there has always been, and per- 
 haps always will be, on the part of people of any religion 
 whatsoever, a tendency to prayer and supplication, that 
 Divine aid may come to the relief of the afiiicted. This ten- 
 dency is at no time more manifest than during locust visita- 
 tions. It was illustrated in the passage of a resolution at the 
 Omaha Conference, in 1876, praying the Supreme Being 
 to avert future injury, and it has found expression in reso- 
 lutions by religious sects and proclamations by State repre- 
 sentatives, who doubtless receive from their constituency, 
 during times of locust trouble, numerous petitions asking 
 for such action. 
 
 The general interest awakened in the various endeavors 
 to aid the sufferers in Missouri, in 1875, was in no small 
 degree due to the active sympathy and the prompt attention 
 given to the subject by Governor C. H. Hardin. About 
 the middle of May he issued the following proclamation : 
 
 Whereas, owing to the failures and losses of crops, much suffer- 
 ing has been endured bj- many of our people during the past few 
 months, and similar calamities are impending upon larger commu- 
 
214 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 nities, and may possiblv extend to the whole State, and if not abated 
 will eventuate in sore distress and famine ; 
 
 Wherefore, be it known that the 3d day of June proximo is here- 
 by appointed and set apart as a day of fasting and prayer, tliat 
 Almighty God may be invoked to remove froui our midst those 
 impending calamities, and to grant instead the blessings of abun- 
 dance and plenty ; and the people and all the officers of the State 
 are herel)y requested to desist, during that day, from their usual 
 employments, and to assemble at their places of worship for humble 
 and devout prayer, and to otherwise observe the day as one of fast- 
 ing and prayer. 
 
 In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set mv hand, and caused 
 the great seal of the State of Missouri to be affixed, in the city of 
 Jefferson, this 17th day of May, 1875. 
 
 C.H.. HARDIN. 
 By the Governor : 
 
 M. K. McGrath, Secretary of State. 
 
 This proclamation naturally drew forth a large amount 
 of comment, and the Governor was ridiculed or praised 
 according as fancy inspired newspaper men. As I was 
 myself taken to task by no less a personage than the Rev- 
 erend Doctor W. Pope Yeaman, of the Third Baptist 
 Church of St. Louis, for supposed ridicule, and for taking 
 *' unnecessary pains to sneer at Providence," it may be as 
 well to state that the only sentiment I ever expressed, 
 either by word of mouth or by pen, as to the proclama- 
 tion, is contained in an article j^ublished in the St. Louis 
 Globe of May 19, 1875, where I wrote : 
 
 I deeply and sincerely appreciate the sympathy which our wor- 
 thy Governor manifests for the suffering people of our western 
 counties, through the proclamation whicli sets apart the 3d of June 
 as a day of fnsting and prayer that the great Author of our being 
 may be invoked to remove impendmg calamities. Yet, without 
 discussing the question as to the efficacy of prayer in affecting the 
 pliysical world, no one will for a moment doubt that the supplica- 
 tions of the people will more surely be granted if accompanied by 
 well-directed, energetic work. When, in 1853, Lord Palmerston 
 was besought by the Scotch Presbyterians to appoint a day for 
 national fasting, humiliation and prayer, that the cholera might be 
 averted, he suggested that it would be more beneficial to feed the 
 poor, cleanse the cesspools, ventilate the houses and remove the 
 causes and sources of contagion, which, if allowed to remain, wdl 
 infallibly breed pestilence, " in spite of all the prayers and fastings 
 
General Considerations. 215 
 
 of a united but inactive nation." "We are commanded by the best 
 authority to prove our faith by our worlt. For my part, I -would 
 like to see the prayers of the people take on the substantial form of 
 collections, made in the churches throughout the State, for the 
 benefit of the suflerers, and distributed by organized authority ; or, 
 what would be still better, the State authorities, if it is in Iheir 
 power, should ofter a premium for every bushel of young locusts 
 destroyed. In this way the more destitute of the people in the 
 infested districts would have a strong incentive to destroy the young 
 locusts, and thus avert future injury, and at the same time furnish 
 the means of earning a liviutr until the danger is past. The locusts 
 thus collected and destroyed could be fed to poultry and hogs, 
 buried as manure, or dried, pulverized and sold for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 Though I may not have overmuch piety and faith my- 
 self, I at least know how to respect those qualities in 
 others, and however much I believe that the insect which 
 was the remote cause of Dr. Teaman's sermon, is governed 
 by natural laws, which should guide us in understanding 
 and overcoming it, the reverend gentleman forgot his call- 
 ing, and made himself ridiculous, in charging, for such 
 reasons, that I took pains to " sneer at Providence." 
 
 As the most effective and substantial method of observ- 
 ing the day of fasting and prayer, and as a result of the 
 suggestion above quoted, Gov. Ilardin, on the 24th of May, 
 wisely issued a second proclamation, urging the benevo- 
 lent and charitable, who might assemble on the 3d of June 
 in public worship, and felt so disposed, to make contribu- 
 tions and forward the same to certain parties who would 
 attend to the proper disbursement of the same. 
 
 Early in April, I favored the Governor with the very 
 first copy that came from the bii,dery, of my Seventh Re- 
 port, in which it was foretold that the locusts would begin 
 to leave the State early in June. Whether or not this had 
 anything to do with the date fixed upon in the proclama- 
 tion, certain it is that tho date was most opportune ; for 
 the insects began to leave about that time, and that por- 
 tion of the community which places faith in the efficacy 
 
216 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 of prayer doubtless had their faith greatly strengthened 
 by the fact. 
 
 NOT A DIVINE VISITATION. 
 
 There are those, among both the clergy and the laity, wlio 
 deem a locust visitation an expression of Divine wrath, for 
 the sin and corrujjtion of the people — a chastisement of tlie 
 Lord. They claim that the " wickedness, fraud, falsehood 
 and corruption " which, as they assert, '* abound in every 
 department of society," are at the bottom of it. They 
 consider it impious to attempt to avert the evil. These 
 opinions were boldly proclaimed in 1875 by writers in some 
 of our prominent newspapers. The expression of such 
 opinions is a downright insult to the hard-working, indus- 
 trious and suffering farmers of the Western country, who 
 certainly deserve no more to be thus visited by Divine 
 wrath than the people of other parts of the State and 
 country. Persons who promulgate such views are little 
 removed in intelligence from the poor crack-brained negress 
 whom I saw in the streets of Warrensburg shouting and 
 imploring the people not to kill a locust, since God Almighty 
 had sent them ; or from the poor deluded Arabs who make 
 no effort to destroy the locusts which they hold in super- 
 stitious reverence. It is not surprising that people are yet 
 found who hold such views; for no great calamity ever befell 
 a country which was not attributed, by certain fanatics, to 
 Divine wrath; but it is surprising that, in this enlightened 
 day, such persons can find circulation for their vagaries in 
 the columns of some of our widely circulating and influ- 
 ential journals. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE WIND IN DETERMINING THE OOUKSE OF 
 LOCUST SWAKMS. 
 
 That excessive multiplication aud hunger are the prin- 
 cipal causes of migration from the native home of the 
 
General Considerations. 217 
 
 species, and that the prevailing winds determine the course 
 therefrom, I have endeavored to show in Chapter III. That 
 all these influences very largely determine the return 
 migration when the insects hatch out in the Mississippi 
 Valley is also doubtless true ; and it is interesting to note 
 in this connection that, according to observations, covei'ing 
 a period of from two to five years, furnished by General 
 Myer, at the request of Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr.,* the pre- 
 vailing winds in May and June, within the region subject 
 to invasion, are from the Gulf of Mexico, or from the south- 
 east and south, i. e., in exactly the opposite direction from 
 which they blow later in the season. Yet, to assume that the 
 migrations are solely dependent for direction on the winds 
 would be incorrectj ae there is cumulative evidence that 
 when once the migration has commenced, adverse winds 
 only retard, but do not materially change its course. I 
 have known the insects in their course northwestwardly to 
 remain on the ground for five consecutive days, the while 
 the wind was opposing them, and then to rise and pass on 
 as soon as it died away or blew again from the south. 
 
 LOCUSTS AS FOOD FOR MAN. 
 
 Our relish or disrelish of certain animals for food are 
 very much matters of habit, or fashion ; for we esteem 
 many things to-day which our forefathers considered either 
 poisonous or repulsive. There is nothing very attractive 
 about such cold-blooded animals as turtles, frogs, oysters, 
 clams, crabs, lobsters, prawns, periwinkles, snails, shrimps, 
 mussels, quahaugs or scallops, until we have become accus- 
 tomed to them; and what is there about a dish of locusts, 
 well served up, more repulsive than about a lot of shrimps? 
 for the former feed on green vegetation and are more 
 
 *" The Destructive Locust of the West," Am. Naturalist, Vol. XI, p. 27. 
 
218 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 cleanly than either pigs or chickens. Who can doubt but 
 that the French during the late investment of Paris would 
 have looked upon a swarm of these locusts as a manna- like 
 blessing from heaven, and would have much preferred them 
 to stewed rat? And why should the people of the West, 
 when rendered destitute and foodless by these insects, not 
 make the best of the circumstances, and guard against fam- 
 ine by utilizing them as food ? Having, in 1875, personally 
 tested them for this purpose, I will here record the result 
 very much as originally given to the American Association 
 for the Advancement of Science, at its meeting for that 
 year. 
 
 In the few words I have to communicate under this head^ 
 it is not my purpose to inflict a long dissertation on edible 
 insects. The subject has been sufliciently treated of by 
 various authors, and especially by Kirby and Spence in 
 their admirable Introduction to Entomology ; while Mr. 
 W. R. Gerard has brought together most of the facts in a 
 paper entitled *' Entomophagy," read before the Pough- 
 keepsie Society of Natural History. It is my desire, 
 rather, to demonstrate the availability of locusts as food 
 for man, and their value, as such, whenever, as not infre- 
 quently happens, they deprive him of all other sources of 
 nourishment. 
 
 With the exception of locusts, most other insects that 
 have been used as food for man, are obtained in small 
 quantities, and their use is more a matter of curiosity than 
 of interest. They have been employed either by excep- 
 tional individuals with perverted tastes, or else as dainty 
 tit-bits to tickle some abnormal and epicurean palate. Not 
 so with locusts, which have, from time immemorial, formed 
 a staple article of diet with many peoples, and are used 
 to-day in large quantities in many parts of the globe. 
 
 Any one at all familiar with the treasures on exhibition 
 
General Considerations. 219 
 
 at the British Museum, must have noticed among its 
 Nineveh sculptures, one in which are represented men 
 carrying different kinds of meat to some festival, and 
 among them some who carry long sticks to which are tied 
 locusts — thus indicating that in those early days, repre- 
 sented by the sculpture, locusts were sufficiently esteemed 
 to make part of a public feast. They are counted among 
 the " clean meats " in Leviticus (xi, 22), and are referred 
 to in other parts of the Bible, as food for man. In most 
 parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, subject to locust ravages, 
 these insects have been, and are yet, extensively used as 
 food. Herodotus mentions a tribe of Ethiopians "which 
 fed on locusts which came in swarms from the southern 
 and unknown districts," and Livingstone has made us 
 familiar with the fact that the locust-feeding custom pre- 
 vails among many African tribes. Indeed, some tribes 
 have been called Acridophagi, from the almost exclusive 
 preference they give to this diet. We have it from Pliny 
 that locusts were in high esteem among the Parthians, and 
 the records of their use in ancient times, as food, in South- 
 ern Europe and Asia, are abundant. This use continues 
 in those parts of the world to the present day. 
 
 In Morocco (as I am informed by Mr. Trovey Blackmore, 
 of London, who has spent some time in that country) they 
 do more or less damage every year, and are used exten- 
 sively for food whenever they so abound as to diminish the 
 ordinary food-supply ; while they are habitually roasted 
 for eating and brought into Tangier and other towns by 
 the country people and sold in the market places and on 
 the streets. The Jews, who form a large proportion of 
 the population, collect the females only for this purpose — 
 having an idea that the male is unclean, but that under 
 the body of the female there are some Hebrew characters 
 which make them lawful food. In reality there are, under 
 
220 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 the thorax, certain dark markings — the species used being 
 the Acridium perigrinum, which is so injurious to 
 crops. Radoszkowski, President of the Russian Ento- 
 mological Society, tells me that they are also, to this day, 
 extensively used as food in Southern Russia ; while many 
 of our North American Indian tribes, and notably the 
 Snake and Digger Indians of California, are known to 
 feed upon them. No further evidence need be cited to 
 prove the present extensive use of these insects as articles 
 of food. Let us then briefly consider the nature of this 
 locust food, and the different methods of preparing it. 
 
 The records show us that in ancient times these insects 
 were cooked in a variety of ways. CEdipoda migratoria 
 and Acridium perigri7mm, which are the more common 
 devastating locusts of the " Old World," are both of large 
 size, and they are generally prepared by first detaching the 
 legs and wings. The bodies are then boiled, roasted, stewed, 
 fried or broiled. The Romans are said to have used them 
 by carefully roasting them to a bright golden yellow. At 
 the present day, in most parts of Africa, and especially in 
 Russia, they are either salted or smoked like red herrings. 
 Chenier, in his account of the Empire of Morocco (Lon- 
 don, 1788), says that thus cured, they are brought into the 
 market in prodigious quantities, but that they have " an 
 oily and rancid taste, which habit only can render agree- 
 able." The Moors use them, to the present day, in the 
 manner described by Jackson in his " Travels in Morocco," 
 viz., by first boiling and then frying them ; but the Jews, 
 in that country — more provident than the Moors — salt 
 them and keep them for using with the dish called Dq/ina, 
 which forms the Saturday's dinner of the Jewish popula- 
 tion. The dish is made by placing meat, fisli, eggs, toma- 
 toes — in fact, almost anything edible — in a jar, which is 
 placed in the oven on Friday night, and taken out hot on 
 
General Considerations. 221 
 
 the Sabbath, so that the people get a hot meal without the 
 sin of lighting a fire on that day. In the Abb<j Godard's 
 " Description et Ilistoire de Maroc'''' (Paris, 1860), he tells 
 us that " they are placed in bags, salted, and either baked 
 or boiled. They are then dried on the terraced roofs of 
 the houses. Fried in oil they are not bad." Some of our 
 Indians collect locusts by lighting fires in the direct path 
 of the devouring swarms. In roasting, the wings and legs 
 crisp up and are separated ; the bodies are then eaten fresh 
 or dried in hot ashes and put away for future use. Our 
 Digger Indians roast them, and grind or pound them to a 
 kind of flour, which they mix with pounded acorns, or 
 with difierent kinds of berries, make into cakes and dry in 
 the sun for future use. 
 
 The species employed by the ancients were doubtless the 
 same as those employed at the present day in the East, 
 viz., the two already mentioned, and, to a less degree, the 
 smaller Caloptemis Italicus. We have no records of any 
 extended use of our own Rocky Mountain species {Calop- 
 tenus spretus), unless — which is not improbable — the 
 species employed by the Indians on the Pacific coast 
 should prove to be the same, or a geographical race of the 
 same. 
 
 It had long been a desire with me to test the value of 
 this species (spretus) as food, and I did not lose the oppor- 
 tunity to gratify that desire, which the recent locust inva- 
 sions into some of the Mississippi Valley States ofFei-ed. I 
 knew well enough that the attempt would provoke to ridi- 
 cule and mirth, or even disgust, the vast majority of our 
 people, unaccustomed to anything of the sort, and associ- 
 ating with the word insect or "bug" everything horrid 
 and repulsive. Yet I was governed by weightier reasons 
 than mere curiosity ; for many a family in Kansas and 
 Nebraska was in 1 874: brought to the brink of the grave by 
 
222 Tlie. BocJcy Mountain Locust. 
 
 sheer lack of food, while the St. Louis papers reported 
 eases of actual death from starvation in some sections of 
 Missouri, where the insects abounded and ate up every 
 green thing in the spring of 1875. 
 
 Whenever the occasion presented, I partook of locusts 
 prepared in different ways, and, one day, ate of no other 
 kind of food, and must have consumed, in one way and 
 another, the substance of several thousand half-grown 
 locusts. Commencing the experiments with some misgiv- 
 ings, and fully expecting to have to overcome disagreeable 
 flavor, I was soon most agreeably surprised to find that the 
 insects were quite palatable, in whatever way prepared. 
 The flavor of the raw locust is most strong and disagree- 
 able, but that of the cooked insects is agreeable, and suffi- 
 ciently mild to be easily neutralized by anything with 
 which they may be mixed, and to admit of easy disguise, 
 according to taste or fancy. But the great point I would 
 make in their favor is, that they need no elaborate prep- 
 aration or seasoning, and that they really require no dis- 
 guise, and herein lies their value in exceptional emergen- 
 cies ; for when people are driven to the point of starvation 
 by these ravenous pests, it follows that all other food is 
 either very scarce or unattainable. A broth, made by 
 boiling the unfledged Calopteni for two hours in the proper 
 quantity of water, and seasoned with nothing in the world 
 but pepper and salt, is quite palatable, and can scarcely be 
 distinguished from beef broth, though it has a slight flavor 
 peculiar to it, and not easily described. The addition of a 
 little butter improves it, and the flavor can, of course, be 
 modified with mint, sage and other spices, ad libitum. 
 Fried or roasted in nothing but their own oil, with the 
 addition of a little salt, and they are by no means unpleas- 
 ant .eating, and have quite a nutty flavor. In fact, it is a 
 flavor, like most peculiar and not unpleasant flavors, that 
 
General Considerations. 223 
 
 one can soon learn to get fond of. Prepared in this man- 
 ner, ground and compressed, they would doubtless keep 
 for a long time. Yet their consumption in large quanti- 
 ties in this form would not, I think, prove as wholesome as 
 Avhen made into soup or broth ; for I found the chitinous 
 covering and the corneous parts — especially the spines on 
 the tibiae — dry and chippy, and somewhat irritating to the 
 throat. This objection would not apply with the same 
 force to the mature individuals, especially of larger spe- 
 cies, where the heads, legs and wings are carefully separ- 
 ated before cooking ; and, in fact, some of the mature 
 insects prepared in this way, then boiled and afterward 
 stewed with a few vegetables and a little butter, pepper, 
 salt and vinegar, made an excellent fricassee. 
 
 Lest it be presumed that these opinions result from an 
 unnatural palate, or from mere individual taste, let me add 
 that I took pains to get the opinions of many other persons. 
 Indeed, I shall not soon forget the experience of my first culi- 
 nary effort in this line — so fraught with fun and so forcibly 
 illustrating the power of example in overcoming prejudice. 
 This attempt was made at a hotel. At first it was impos- 
 sible to get any assistance from the followers of the ars 
 coquinaria. They could not more flatly have refused to 
 touch, taste or handle, had it been a question of cooking 
 vipers. Nor love nor money could induce them to do 
 anything, and in this respect the folks of the kitchen were 
 all alike, without distinction of color. There was no other 
 resource but to turn cook myself, and, operations once 
 commenced, the interest and aid of a brother naturalist 
 and two intelligent ladies were soon enlisted. It was most 
 amusing to note how, as the rather savory and pleasant odor 
 went up from the cooking dishes, the expression of horror 
 and disgust gradually vanished from the faces of the curi- 
 ous lookers on, and how, at last, the head cook — a stout 
 
224 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 and jolly negress — took part in the operations ; how, when 
 the different dishes were neatly served upon tlie table and 
 were freely partaken of with evident relish and many 
 expressions of surprise and satisfaction by the ladies and 
 gentlemen interested, this same cook was actually induced 
 to tiy them and soon grew eloquent in their favor ; how, 
 finally, a prominent banker, as also one of the editors of 
 the town, joined in the meal. The soup soon vanished, 
 and banished silly prejudice ; then cakes with batter 
 enough to hold the locusts together disappeared, and were 
 pronounced good ; then baked locusts with or without 
 condiments ; and when the meal was completed with 
 dessert of baked locusts and honey a la John the Baptist, 
 the opinion was unanimous that that distinguished prophet 
 no longer deserved our sympathy, and that he had not 
 fared badly on his diet in the wilderness. Prof. H. H. 
 Straight, at the time connected with the Warrensburg 
 (Mo.) Normal School, who made some experiments for me 
 in this line, wrote: "We boiled them rather slowly fpr 
 three or four hours, seasoned the fluid with a little butter, 
 salt and pepper, and it made an excellent soup, acUially; 
 would like to have it even in prosperous times." Mrs. 
 Johonnot, who was at the time an invalid, and Prof. 
 Johonnot, the then Principal of the school, pronounced it 
 excellent. 
 
 I sent a bushel of the scalded insects to Mr. Jno. Bonnet, 
 one of the oldest and best known caterers of St. Louis. 
 Master of the mysteries of the cuisine, he made a soup 
 which was really delicious, and was so pronounced by 
 dozens of prominent St. Louisans who tried it. Shaw, in 
 his Travels in Barhary (Oxford, England, 1738), in which 
 two pages are devoted to a description of the ravages of 
 locusts, mentions that they are sprinkled with salt and 
 fried, when they taste like crawfish ; and Mr. Bonnet 
 
General Co.nsideratlons. 225 
 
 declared that this locust soup reminded him of nothing so 
 much as crawfish bisque, which is so highly esteemed by 
 connoisseurs. He also declared that he would gladly have 
 it on his bill of fare every day if he could get the insects. 
 His method of preparation was to boil on a brisk fire, 
 having previously seasoned them with salt, pepper and 
 grated nutmeg, the whole being occasionally stirred. 
 When cooked they are pounded in a mortar with bread 
 fried brown, or a puree of rice. They are then replaced 
 in the saucepan and thickened to a broth by placing on a 
 warm part of the stove, but not allowed to boil. For 
 use, the broth is passed through a strainer and a few 
 croutons are added. I carried a small box of fried ones 
 Avith me to Europe, and they were tasted by numerous 
 persons, including the members of the London Entomo- 
 logical Society and of the Societe Entoniologique de 
 France. Without exception they were pronounced far 
 better than was expected, and those fried in their own oil 
 with a little salt remained good and fresh for several 
 months ; others fried in butter became slightly rancid — a 
 fault of the butter. Mr. C. Home, F. Z. S., writing to 
 Science Gossi2y about swarms of locusts which visited parts 
 of India in 1863, says : "In the evening I had asked two 
 gentlemen to dinner and gave them a curry and croquette 
 of locusts. They passed for Cabul shrimps, which in flavor 
 they A'ery much resembled, but the cook having inadvert- 
 ently left a hind leg in a croquette, they were found out, to 
 the infinite disgust of one of the party and the amusement 
 of the other." 
 
 This testimony as to the past and present use of locusts 
 as human food might be multiplied almost indefinitely, and 
 I hope I have said enough to prove that the nature of that 
 food IS by no means disagreeable. In short, not to waste 
 time m further details, I can safely assert, from my own 
 15 
 
226 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 personal experience, that our Rocky Mountain locust is more 
 palatable when cooked than some animals that Ave already 
 use upon our tables. I mention the species more particu- 
 larly, because the flavor will doubtless differ according to 
 the species or even according to the nature of the vege- 
 tation the insects were nourished on. I have made no 
 chemical analysis of this locust food, but that it is highly 
 nourishing may be gathered from the fact that all animals 
 fed upon the insects thrive when these are abundant ; and 
 the further fact that our locust-eating Indians, and all 
 other locust-eating people, grow fat upon them. 
 
 Locusts will hardly come into general use for food except 
 wliero they are annually abundaiit, and our western farmers 
 who occasionally suffer from them will not easily be brought 
 to a due appreciation of them for this purpose. Prejudiced 
 against them, fighting to overcome them, killing them in 
 large quantities, until the stench from their decomposing 
 bodies becomes at times most offensive — ihey find little 
 that is attractive in the pests. For these reasons, as long 
 as other food is attainable, the locust will be apt to bo 
 rejected by most persons. Yet the fact remains that they 
 do make very good food. When freshly caught in large 
 quantities, the mangled mass presents a not very appetiz- 
 ing appeai-ance, and emits a rather strong and not over 
 pleasant odor; but rinsed and scalded, they turn a brownish 
 red, look much more inviting, and give no disagreeable 
 smell. 
 
 The experiments here recorded have given rise to many 
 sensational newspaper pai'agraphs, and I consider the mat- 
 ter of sufficient importance to place the actual facts on 
 permanent record. 
 
 Like or dislike of many kinds of food is, let me repeat, 
 very much a matter of individual taste or national custom. 
 Every nation has some special and favorite dish which the 
 
Oeneral Considerations. 
 
 227 
 
 people of other nations will scarcely touch, while the very 
 animal that is highly esteemed in one part of the country 
 is not infrequently rejected in another section as poisonous. 
 Prejudice wields a most powerful influence in all our 
 actions. It is said that the Irish during the famine of 
 1857, would rather starve than eat our corn bread, but on 
 the other hand, as we have already seen {ante, p. 35), the 
 Mormons in 1855, from necessity, really subsisted on a 
 locust diet ; and if what I have here written shall, in the 
 future, induce some of our Western people to profit by the 
 hint, and avoid suffering or actual starvation, I shall not 
 have wi'itten in vain. 
 
 UNNECESSARY ALAR:M CAUSED BY COMPARATIVELY 
 LESS SPECIES. 
 
 The sense of apprehension of 
 further danger is great in a 
 community that has suffered 
 severely from any disaster what- 
 soever, and locusts which under 
 ordinary circumstances would 
 attract no attention are quite 
 frequently looked upon with 
 alarm and suspicion during years 
 of visitation by spretus. Mr. 
 E. W. Kruze, of Sedalia, Mo., 
 sent me, in 1875, a very large, 
 short- winged locust found in his 
 locality, with an inquiry as to 
 its name, and whether there 
 was any connection between its 
 aj^pearance and the late in- 
 vasion of spretus. The same 
 species was also sent me from 
 the same locality by Mr. Geo. tml clumbt Locust. 
 
 HARM- 
 
228 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 Husmann. It is the Brachypeplus inagnus of entomolo- 
 gists, and may be popularly called the Clumsy Locust. 
 It is one of our largest and clumsiest species, incapable 
 of flight, and never doing serious injury. It is common 
 on the plains of Western Kansas and Colorado, but was 
 never before reported from Missouri. It is prettily 
 marked, as in Fig. 40, and occurs in two distinct varieties, 
 one in which a bright yellowish-green prevails, and the 
 other in which fleshy tints, and pale-brown predominate. 
 There can be no connection between its appearance and 
 that of spretiis, other than that the exodus of this last 
 rendered more conspicuous all large insects of this kind 
 that were left behind. 
 
 Reports are often circulated and published during 
 winter that " the grasshoppers have appeared," by which 
 is meant that the dreaded spretiis is about. The follow- 
 ing letter from Dr. B, F. Dunkley, of Dunksburg, 
 Pettis county, Mo., received in the Avinter of 18V5-G, will 
 show how easily people are misled : 
 
 Inclosed please find some young locusts, just hatched out. We- 
 believe them to be the Kocky Mountain Locusts, but scud them to 
 you to decide. Please answer. In my report, in answer lo your 
 circular, I said that some of the locusts that hatched out late 
 and only prew to half the size of otiiers that migrated and left us 
 last July, did lay their eggs, for myself and others saw them at it. 
 Now I mink these are from the eggs laid by them. If so, will the 
 co.d, when it comes, kill them V 
 
 All opinions like those expressed by Mr. Dunkley are 
 based on "mistaken identity." The species noticed hop- 
 ping about, during the mild weather of January and 
 February, are native species that are with us all the time, 
 and habitually hibernate in the half-grown, unfledged con- 
 dition. The most common of them, and that sent by Mr. 
 Dunkley and other correspondents, is the Green-striped 
 Locust {Tragocephala viridifasciata,) a very common 
 
General Considerations. 229 
 
 species, ranging from Maine to Florida, and from the 
 Atlantic to ^Nebraska. It passes the winter in the imma- 
 ture condition, sheltering in meadows and in tufts of 
 grass, and becoming active whenever the weather is mild. 
 It is sometimes found in winter in the early larva stages, 
 but more often in the pupa state, and becomes fledged 
 toward the end of April. 
 
 It differs generically from the Rocky Mountain Locust, 
 which hibernates in the egg state. This Green-striped 
 Locust, as its name implies, has, when mature, a broad 
 green stripe on the front wings, and by its narrower, 
 
 [Fig. 41.] 
 
 Grekn-sti!Iped Locust: -«, larva; b, perfect insect. 
 
 humped and keeled thorax or fore-body (Fig. 41), may 
 at once be distinguished from the dreaded Rocky Moun- 
 tain pest. Like so many other species of its family it 
 occurs in two well marked varieties, one in which, in 
 addition to the stripe on the front wings, the whole body 
 and hind thighs, above, are pea-green; the other in which 
 this color gives way to pale-brown. In both varieties the 
 hind wings are smoky, with the basal third greenish. 
 
 The species noticed by Mr. Dunkley to hatch out late 
 and to lay eggs in the fall, was more probably femur- 
 riibrum than spretics. 
 
 The species of the genus Tettix also hibernate in the 
 half-grown and sometimes in the full-grown condition, 
 and are frequently supposed to be the young of sjyretus. 
 These insects are very active, and are at once distinguished 
 by the small head, great breadth across the middle of the 
 
230 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 
 
 proihorax which extends to a tapering point to or beyond 
 the tip of the abdomen ; by the front of the breast forming 
 a projection like a stock-cravat into which to receive the 
 lower part of the head, and by the short, rudimentary, 
 scale-like front wings. They fly with a buzzing noise like 
 a flesh-fly. Our most common species ( Tettix gramdata, 
 Scudder, Fig. 42,) may be called the Granulated Grouse- 
 Locust. Like the other species, it is very variable in color 
 [Fig. 42.] and ornamentation, the prevailing hue being 
 dai'k-brown beneath and paler above. A well- 
 marked variety has a small, pale spot on the 
 rudimentary front wings, and a larger conspic- 
 uous one on top of the hind thighs. The species 
 of the genus Stenohothrus also hibernate partly 
 grown, and are mistaken for S2)retus. 
 
 Even insects belonging to a different order are 
 not infrequently the cause of unnecessary alarm. 
 In the spring of 1875 the meadows were reported as being 
 destroyed around Champaign and Jacksonville, Illinois, by 
 what was supposed to be the young of sp7'etus / but speci- 
 mens of these supposed locusts, sent me by Chapin & Sim- 
 mons, of the Jacksonville Journal, proved to be little Jas- 
 soid leaf-hoppers allied to the common grape-leaf hoppers 
 — insects belonging to a difierent order (Hemiptera) from 
 that which includes the locusts (Orthoptera.) They were 
 indeed grass-hoppers, in the sense of hopping about among 
 the grass, but they were not the so-called grasshoppers 
 (locusts) that at the time were proving such a plague in 
 parts of Kansas and Missouri. 
 
 PROSPECTIVE INJURY. 
 
 It is of course impossible to predicate with assurance 
 injury or non-injury from the fall swarms. There were no 
 locusts to do harm in Manitoba in 1876, and it would 
 
General Considerations. 231 
 
 seem that the Saskatchawan country must have been more 
 or less depleted by the swarms which overspread the coun- 
 try to the southeast last fall. I am inclined to hope and 
 believe that there will not be another general invasion 
 next autumn, and that the people of Texas, Indian Ter- 
 ritory, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, 
 Southern Dakota and even Minnesota, may expect 
 immunity for a few years to come, after the hosts which 
 hatched this spring are destroyed, or wing themselves 
 away. There may be partial injury from their progeny in 
 1878, or even 1879, in parts of the country named, espe- 
 cially toward the Northwest, but there will, I think, be no 
 general destruction. 
 
 That in the future the States just enumerated will be 
 again visited from time to time, there can be no manner 
 of doubt, unless the Commission now investigating the 
 subject discover some means of preventing the migrations 
 of the pest from its native breeding-grounds. But the 
 injury will decrease in proportion as the population in- 
 creases — as knowledge and experience with the insect are 
 acquired and retained — and as the Signal Service is able to 
 forewarn the farmer of approaching swarms. It is my 
 earnest hope that this little treatise, which I now close, 
 will, in serving as a record of the past, if in nothing else, 
 prove valuable to the farmers of the West, by helping them 
 to successfully withstand any future visitation of Calopte- 
 nus sjjretus. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 44, last line, for " ; " read '■ and." 
 
 Page 92. As I learn from Prof. Asa Gray, the Amaranius here referred to as 
 BlUuni, and hitherto so considered by botanists, is, according to Mr. Watson, 
 a'new species. It is common in the Eocky Mountain regions, and has cer- 
 tainly spread from the West ; whereas the Blitum, introduced fiom Europe, 
 has doubtless spread from the East. 
 
 Page 113, line 7, after "Sphinx," add ^' {Deilephila lineata)." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 A 
 
 Air, eflfects of exposure to, ou eggs 
 
 of sprelus - 148 
 
 Acridium Ainerlcanum 101 
 
 " " flight of, mis- 
 taken (or spretus 31 
 
 Acridiitmperigrinum 205 
 
 Amarantus Blitimi 92, 110 
 
 Aiiencan Acridium 101 
 
 Aiiviion, use of Vi 
 
 Ambhjchila cyhndriformis 127 
 
 Atouymoixs Tachina-fly 131 
 
 Anthomyia Egg Parasite 118 
 
 Anthomyia radicum 118 
 
 " " var. calopteni, 118 
 
 •• brassicce 121 
 
 " ceparum 121 
 
 " raphani 121 
 
 Apocynum 92 
 
 Aristida oligostachia — 110 
 
 Asclepias 92 
 
 Asioma gryllaria 128 
 
 " iiarasiticum 130 
 
 Atlantic Locust 22 
 
 B 
 
 Beetles that prey on locusts 127 
 
 Birds, enemies of locusts 113 
 
 Biid laws should be enforced 139 
 
 Birds should be protected 169 
 
 Bounty law, desirable features of.. 185 
 
 Box Turtle, eats locusts 114 
 
 Brachypepliis magnus 228 
 
 Breeding places of spretus 56 
 
 Burning machines 156 
 
 Burning the young locusts 155 
 
 Burying locust-eggs, effects of 149 
 
 C 
 
 Calopfenus A/lanis 22 
 
 " bi-vu(atus 89,194 
 
 " differentialis 89,194 
 
 " femur-rubrum, full de- 
 scription of 15 
 
 Caloplenus, peculiar characters of 
 
 the genus 15 
 
 Ca'.optenvs Italicus 31, 221 
 
 Caloptenus fpretus, detailed de- 
 scription of 17 
 
 Caloptenus viridis 27 
 
 Caiosoma calidum 127 
 
 Carabkhe, larvse of certain, devour 
 
 eggs of locust.-- 124 
 
 Cat Bird 114 
 
 Catching locusts 161 
 
 Chalcid fly, parasitic ou spretus 117 
 
 Changes that follow locust inva- 
 sions 109 
 
 Cicindela, species that prey on 
 
 spretus 128 
 
 Classiflcatory position of sjiretus.. 13 
 Climatic peculiarities of Western 
 
 plains 56 
 
 Clumsy locust 227 
 
 Coal-oil pans, how constructed 163 
 
 Coccygus Americanus 114 
 
 Collecting locust-eggs 153 
 
 Comparative description of imma- 
 ture stages of sprelus, femur- 
 
 rubrum &ud At lanis 26 
 
 Comparison of Red-legged Locust 
 
 and Rocky Mountain Locust 14 
 
 Compensation attending locust in- 
 juries 108 
 
 Contrivances for catching young 
 
 locusts 162 
 
 Coral-winged locust 102 
 
 Cotton batting, us ^ of, in protect- 
 ing trees 166 
 
 Country in which spretus can i ot 
 
 permanently thrive 203 
 
 Crabro slirp'icola 122 
 
 Crow Blackbird ... 114 
 
 Crushing young locusts 157 
 
 D 
 
 Damage done by common locusts.. 206 
 Dawson, G M., his observations on 
 
 return migrations of spretus 48 
 
 Deilephila liiieata 112 
 
 Destination of departing swarms of 
 
 spretus 104 
 
 Destruction of young locusts 155 
 
 De?tructivene88 of sprelus 89 
 
 Development of migrating instinct 200 
 D.fferential locust 194 
 
234 
 
 Index. 
 
 Direction in which young locnsts 
 travel - 100 
 
 Direction taken by departing 
 swarms of sprehts 103 
 
 Distinguishing characters of Rocky 
 Mountain Locust and Ked-legged 
 Locust 15 
 
 Ditch for trap, size important 160 
 
 Ditching and trenching as safe- 
 guards aga'mst spre/us.. 157 
 
 Diversified agriculture desirable... 174 
 
 E 
 Early visitations of Rocky Moun- 
 tain Locust 33 
 
 Eastern limit of locust invasions, 53, 203 
 Effects of young of spretiis, where 
 
 hatched - 10" 
 
 Egg-mass of sprelus, construc- 
 tion of - "1 
 
 Egg-masses of sprettis, how many 
 
 formed by one female 72 
 
 Eggs of spretus, how laid 69 
 
 " " where laid 96 
 
 " " when hatched 97 
 
 " " experiments with, 140 
 
 " " methods of de- 
 
 stroying 
 
 139 
 
 E:-'g-p!irasites of sjjiedis 117 
 
 Eggs of Silky Mite HO 
 
 Kmbryon of spieliis, growth and 
 
 ;ippearance of '''4 
 
 Eragrofitls poxolcks 110 
 
 Erax bastard'u 128 
 
 Escape of sp»'e^<s from egg 73 
 
 Erwista Jlavicauda --- 134 
 
 Exi)eriments with eggs- 
 Burying 140 
 
 Exposure to air 148 
 
 Freezing and thawing 141 
 
 Soaking and drying 143 
 
 F 
 
 Fall harrowing 15-' 
 
 Famine and epidemics consequent 
 
 on locust invasions 30 
 
 Fasting and prayer 213 
 
 Ftmurrubnim, dostructiveness of. 
 
 in 18ti9 : 38 
 
 Field :Mouse, eats locust-eggs 11 1 
 
 Flesh-fly 123, 135 
 
 Flight of «ijr«^<*', direction of t)(> 
 
 " " extent of 85 
 
 Flight of sprelus, noise of... S7 
 
 " " sometimes noc- 
 turnal 83 
 
 Food plants of spretiis - 89 
 
 Freezing and thawing eggs of 
 
 spretiis 141 
 
 Fruit trees, how protected 105 
 
 " " injuries to 93 
 
 C 
 
 Gordius aquaticus 114 
 
 Granulated grouse-locust 230 
 
 Grasshopper ^s. locust 207 
 
 Great-crested Fly-catcher 114 
 
 Green-striped locust 229 
 
 Green variety of Rocky Mountain 
 
 locust 27 
 
 H 
 
 Habits of young of spretus 98 
 
 Hard soil, why preferred for pur- 
 pose of oviposition 77 
 
 Harpalus, larvje ef, devour eggs of 
 
 S2)retus 125, 126 
 
 Harrowing locust-eggs 153 
 
 Har})alus Pennsylvaniciis 127 
 
 History of locust ravages in 
 
 America 33 
 
 H'lgs as destroyers of locusts 171 
 
 Hymecopterous larva, parasitic on 
 eggs of Rocky Mountain Locust. 123 
 
 Ichneumons, probably parasitic on 
 
 locusts 128 
 
 Imago of spretus, flexibility of 
 
 newly developed legs of 81 
 
 Influence of moisture on locust- 
 eggs '.... 143 
 
 Intervals of oviposition 73 
 
 Invasion of 1818-19 33 
 
 1815-49 .■ -- 34 
 
 1S55-72.,- 34—38 
 
 1874 39 
 
 1875... 42 
 
 1876 49 
 
 Invertebrate locust enemies 115 
 
 Irrigation 154, 171 
 
 J 
 Joel the prophet's description of 
 
 locust fligh s 87 
 
 K 
 
 Kansas locust-laws 178, 179 
 
 Kerosene, use of, as a locust-de- 
 stroyer 162 
 
Index. 
 
 235 
 
 Cings or Queens, lociu-ts not led 
 by 101 
 
 L 
 
 Lachnosterna fusca 126 
 
 Lapland Longspur 113 
 
 Larvre of Morning Sphinx 110, 111 
 
 Larva of Anihomyia, description of 120 
 LarviB of Tachina-flies and flesh- 
 flies compared 136 
 
 Larva of spre'zts^ full description of 20 
 
 Late planting desirable 170 
 
 Legislation on locusts 176 
 
 Leptus irritans 130 
 
 Limit of locust migrations 60 
 
 Locust Mite 12S 
 
 Locust plague no new thing 29 
 
 Locust ravages east of Mississippi, 190 
 " " how to prevent ... 139 
 
 Locust cs. Grasshopper 207 
 
 Locusts, alarm caused by harmless 
 
 species of 227 
 
 Locusts as food for man 217 
 
 Locusts, flights of, east of the Mis- 
 sissippi 201 
 
 Locusts, flights of, in Illinois in 
 
 1873 195 
 
 Locusts, flights of, in Illinois in 
 
 1875, composed mainly of Allanis 198 
 Locusts in America, earliest record 
 
 of 31 
 
 Locusts in South America 32 
 
 Locusts not a divine visitation 216 
 
 Locusts on Pacific coast, early 
 
 records of 32 
 
 Nl 
 Mantis Carolina, feeds on locusts, 128 
 Measurements of femur-rub rum.. 17 
 Measurements of locusts, how 
 
 taken 16 
 
 Measurements of sjiretus 21 
 
 Melanerpes erythi-ocephalus 114 
 
 MelanopUis or Caloptenus 209 
 
 Mermis 114 
 
 Migrations of locusts, cause of ..57, 200 
 " " influence of 
 
 wind in determining 57, 104. 216 
 
 Migratory instinct of locusts 88 
 
 Migratory locust of Europe, de- 
 
 structiveness of 30 
 
 Migratory locusts in Atlantic 
 States 187 
 
 Military, employment of, against 
 
 locusts 173 
 
 Mimus Carolineneis 114 
 
 Minnesota locust-law 180 
 
 Missouri locust-law 177 
 
 Modification of species 63 
 
 Molting process 79 
 
 Molts, number of, in sjiretus 82 
 
 Morning Sphinx 112 
 
 Myiarchus crinitus .. 114 
 
 N 
 
 Native home of sprelus 61 
 
 Natural enemies of spretus 113 
 
 Natural history of spi-etus 69 
 
 Nebraska locust-law- 185 
 
 Ninety - fourth meridian, eastern 
 
 limit of spretus 65 
 
 Nomenclature 207 
 
 Non - migratory locusts, injury 
 
 from 190 
 
 Non-migratory locusts, unusually 
 
 numerous some years 199 
 
 Number of eggs deposited by sjyre- 
 
 tus 70 
 
 O 
 
 (Edipoda atrox 89 
 
 " migratoria 31 
 
 " phmnicoptera 102 
 
 Omaha Conference 53 
 
 Omnivorous propensities of locusts 91 
 
 Origin of migratory locusts 57 
 
 Oviposition of locusts 69 
 
 P 
 
 Panicu7n sanguinale 110 
 
 Parasite of house-fly 130 
 
 Paris Green, use of, for destroying 
 
 locusts 164, 170 
 
 Pasimachus elongatus 127 
 
 Pennsylvania ground-beetle 127 
 
 Perpetuation and permanent settle- 
 ment of spretus east of 94th 
 
 meridian impossible 62 
 
 Plants uninjured by locusts 44, 170 
 
 Plectrophanes lapponicns 113 
 
 Ploughing the eggs under 153 
 
 Poultry destroy locusts 171 
 
 Power of locusts f or inj ury 85 
 
 Practical considerations 139 
 
 Prairie fires useful in spring 169 
 
 Prairie fires vs. locust ravases 209 
 
 Predictions as to probable injuries 
 from locusts in 1875 41 
 
236 
 
 Index. 
 
 Preventive measures 
 
 1G9 
 
 Proclamation of Gov. Hardin 213 
 
 Promachus apivora - 127 
 
 Prospective injury from locusts... 2?0 
 
 Pupa of spretus, description of 20 
 
 Purslane, great abundance follows 
 locust injury m 
 
 Q 
 
 Qaiscalus versicolor. H* 
 
 R 
 
 Kains^ advantage of heavy 43 
 
 Rate of flight of locusts 56 
 
 Rate of flight of locusts, variable. . 96 
 
 Rate of spread 95 
 
 Rate of travel of young 100 
 
 Ravages of locusts east of Missis- 
 
 1S7 
 sippi - '■^' 
 
 Red-eyed Vireo 114 
 
 Red-headed Woodpecker -- 113 
 
 Red ■ legged locust common in 
 
 United States - 14 
 
 Remedies against locusts 139 
 
 Results arrived at by experiments 
 
 on eggs of locusts 151 
 
 Return migration to British 
 
 America *' 
 
 Return migration to British 
 
 America, theory of, strengthened 
 
 by occurrences in 1870 50, 51 
 
 Rocky Mountain Locust purely 
 
 American -- ^^ 
 
 Root crops, what ones safe 175 
 
 S 
 
 Salvia trichoslemmoidfs 92 
 
 Sarcophaga carnorla 123, 135 
 
 *' sarracenloi 132 
 
 Side ditches and drains as traps for 
 
 locusts l^SO 
 
 Sigtiil Service, availability of, in 
 communicating information as to 
 
 locust invasions 1''2 
 
 Silky Mite...- 115 
 
 Skunk, enemy of spretus 114 
 
 Smudging and smoking 168 
 
 Soldier-bug, feeds on locusts 128 
 
 Species, geographical range of 202 
 
 Species, failure of people to dis- 
 criminate between 20 1 
 
 Species, variation in — 25 
 
 Species vs. Variety and Race 23' 
 
 Species, what constitutes a 24 
 
 Specific distinctions arbitrary.... 35^ 
 Spines on legs of locusts, possible 
 
 use of "***■ 
 
 Spretus and Atlanis probable races 
 
 ot femur-rubrum 26 
 
 Starvation caused by locust inva- 
 sions—cases of, not well attested. 46- 
 
 Slenopogon consangnlneus 127 
 
 Striped Squirrel, eats locust-eggs.. 114 
 
 Summer ys. Fall swarms 58 
 
 Sulphur, use of, in protecting trees 167 
 T 
 
 Tachina anonyma 131 
 
 " flavicauda 134 
 
 Temperature at St. Louis in winter 
 
 of 1876-7, table of 152 
 
 Tendency of hatching locusts to 
 
 push upwards ""^ 
 
 Tellix granulata 230 
 
 Texas, early locust invasion of 34 
 
 Time of appearance of invading 
 
 swarms ^* 
 
 Time of hatching of eggs 97 
 
 Tin, use of, in protecting trees 166 
 
 Tragocephala viridifasciata 228 
 
 Tramping ground infested with 
 
 locust-eggs 154 
 
 Transformations of spreius 69 
 
 Trapping young locusts 157 
 
 Trees, what usually avoided by 
 
 sjireius - ^'■ 
 
 Trombidium scabrum ,^-- 115 
 
 " sericeum 115 
 
 " holocericeiitn 115 
 
 Two-striped locust 194 
 
 V 
 
 Vernonia novmboracensis 92 
 
 Vilfa vaginoiflora m 
 
 W 
 Water, efficacy of, in ditches for 
 
 trapping locusts l*'"' 
 
 White-lined Morning Sphinx 112 
 
 Wind, its influence in determining 
 course of locust swarms.. 07, 104, 217 
 Y 
 
 Yellow-tailed Tachina-fly 134 
 
 Yellow-billed Cuckoo 114 
 
 Young locusts, how destroyed 155- 
 
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