INSECT LIFE IN INDIA AND HOW TO STUDY IT. J 85 



When the Insect first acquires wings it is salmon pink in colour, but 

 Inter it changes to yellow and then to a dull purple. The markings on 

 the wings are very characteristic, the wings having a number of large 

 and small black spots which form complete transverse bands near the 

 apex of the wing. The invasions of this Insect are periodical, the 

 average number of years that elapses between them being about eleven, 

 but a longer interval may pass. The last great attack occurred between 

 the years 1889-1893, but in 1901 the Insect spread from the north- 

 western frontier through the continent as far south as Ganjam in Madras, 

 the whole of the tract between the sea on the West and the Brama- 

 putra River on the East being invaded. Whilst these great flights are 

 present in a district, green foliage of every description suffers severely, 

 and the bark is peeled off young saplings. Crops, orchards and 

 young plantations, &c, thus suffer severely from the pest during great 

 invasions, whilst all tracts containing soft loose sandy soil are used by 

 the females for egg-laying, the eggs being laid by her in a hole in the 

 soil which she digs with the ovipositor (the blade-like instrument) at 

 the end of her body. (See Frontispiece — the insect to the right is 

 a female in the act of egg-laying.) If these eggs are not either dug 

 up and collected or ploughed in so as to destroy them, the young 

 hoppers will on hatching out do further injury to adjacent plants, &c. 

 When swarms of fully developed locusts are seen in a district, every 

 effort should be made to mark down the places at which they alight, 

 if it is not possible to keep them on the move and prevent their doing 

 so. If, after they have left the surface of the soil is seen to be covered 

 with small holes, like holes made in soft earth by heavy rain-drops, 

 eggs have been laid on that area (in the holes) and these should be got 

 rid of before they hatch out, or the young hoppers should be killed off 

 as soon after hatching as possible and before they pack into columns, 

 which they begin to do after about five days. 

 Remedies : — 



1. Eggs. — Dig up the eggs and destroy them or plough them deep 

 into th8 soil. 



2. Before formation into column. — Destroy the young hoppers as 

 soon as they emerge from the eggs and before they pack into columns 

 and begin their march into the fields under crops. This may be done 

 by crushing or burning them. Methods of accomplishing this are by 

 making use of men with flails or by covering the area occupied by the 

 pest with brushwood and setting fire to it. A more satisfactory method 



