90 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 1890. 



and early in August the young locusts hatched out in countless numbers, but were 

 apparently more backward, and possessed of less strength and stamina than were 

 those of the previous year. The unusually lieavy rainfall killed vast numbers of 

 them, in some parts of the country, and elsewhere the insects seemed stunted and 

 feeble, and grew but slowly. They were destroyed in vast numbers by the 

 vigorous measures initiated by Government officers, and were also said to be 

 diseased and attacked by worms and other parasites. As late as November, the 

 mass of the young locusts appeared still unable to fly and made no general move, 

 as they had done the year before, towards their permanent home in the south-west. 

 The invasion was in fact at an end, and though swarms appeared in Sawantwadi in 

 1883-84, no further injury of a serious nature seems to have occurred. 



The injury occasioned to the rain crops by the locusts was very considerable 

 over a great portion of the Deccan and Konkan, both in 1882 and 1883. But it 

 was found, at the end of the invasion, that abundance of the cold weather crops 

 had compensated to so great an extent for the injury done to the rain crops that, 

 on the whole, no very widespread suffering had arisen. 



In 187S, when the Madras Presidency was invaded, the young locusts began to 

 appear in January, and were found in great numbers in different districts from then 

 on until September and October, the earlier swarms being found in the west and 

 south of the Presidency, and the later ones in the north and east. Winged 

 locusts were first observed in the end of March and beginning of April, in the 

 hills to the south-west (Wynaad and Nilgiri), where thev may be supposed 

 to breed permanently. Thence, aided by the south-west monsoon, they 

 gradually worked their way over the Presidency to the east and north, finally disap- 

 pearing about November and December. The information available hardly justifies 

 any very decided conclusion as to the life history of the locust. But it may be 

 noticed that locusts were observed pairing in the Salem District, in the latter part 

 of June, and also that the young locusts, which were found in the early part of 

 May, in the Udamalpet Taluk, were supposed to be the offspring of the large 

 Sights of winged locusts which had appeared in the preceding February in the 

 some taluk. The connection between the autumn broods of locusts and those 

 which appeared in the early part of the year has not been made out satisfactorily. 



Remedies. — The following is a short account of the chief measures which have at 

 different times been adopted in India against locusts. In this connection it must 

 be remembered that the locust of N.-W. India being distinct from that of S.-W. 

 India, the measures found useful in one invasion will not necessarily be applicable 

 in another. 



hi the locust invasion of the Punjab in 1863, it was found that the only stage in 



which the pest could be successfully destroyed was while the eggs were still in the 



ground, or very shortly after the young had hatched. For the destruction of the 



repeated ploughing was recommended, where practicable; while it was found 



that the young locusts, when only a few days old, could easily be destroyed by 



ing them gently into a small ditch, previously dug for their reception, and then 



