134 [Dec, 1846. 



the National Gazette, and written by my brother, Mr. Thomas 

 W. Morris, in 1834. 



The eggs require forty-two days to mature in the branches of 

 the trees j they then burst the shell and appear, a minute but 

 active fac simile of the parent in the larvae state, except the ab- 

 sence of the wing cases ; they require but a few moments to 

 stretch their limbs and prepare for labor, before they unloose their 

 hold on the twiggs on which they had been deposited, and fall to 

 the ground, where they immediately disappear in search of food 

 in the roots of the tree. If the eggs that are about to hatch be 

 placed over a glass jar filled with earth, the young grubs will in 

 a few hours after their escape from the eggs, be seen at the bot- 

 tom of the jar endeavoring to force their way still deeper when 

 first hatched they are quite white, but soon change to yellowish 

 brown. They exist in separate tribes, occupying different sec- 

 tions of country ; making their appearance in different years, but 

 invariably after the same interval of time. For a year or two 

 before the arrival of the main body, a few scattered individuals 

 are generally found. 



Mr. Morris thus describes them, as noticed by him at various 

 times and places : 



"In November, 1812, I found a large number of locust grubs 

 under an old apple tree, between two and three feet below the 

 surface, having every appearance of such as now issue from the 

 ground, and nearly of the same size. On the 27th of June, 1815, 

 I saw a portion of one of their countless tribes west of the Alle- 

 ghany mountains, extending from the summit of the Chestnut 

 ridge into the State of Ohio, beyond Steubenville ; occupying every 

 shrub and tree except the pines, and the walnut, hickory, and 

 some of the same family. On my return in the latter end of the 

 following month, not an individual of the myriads which had oc- 

 cupied that space was to be seen ; the tops of the forests for up- 

 wards of a hundred miles appeared as if scorched by fire. In 

 1832, just seventeen years after, I noticed a newspaper para- 

 graph, which stated that the locust had appeared in that neigh- 

 borhood in large numbers. 



The northern parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey were 

 visited by them in 1826, when I had another opportunity of see- 

 ing this extraordinary insect. On my way from Easton, through 

 New Jersey to Milford in Pike county, Pennsylvania, I fell in 

 with a very numerous body ; how far they extended, I was unable 

 to learn, but they did not disappear from my route until after 

 passing through a large part of Pike county, a distance by the 

 road, of more than sixty miles from the place where I saw them 

 on the 23d of May. Trees and shrubs are necessary as places of 

 deposit for their eggs ; consequently, though numerous in the 

 State House Square, none were to be found in Washington Square, 

 which in 1817 was destitute of trees." 



