182 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [November, 



to belong to the same family as that most beautiful of British insects the 

 lace-wing fly, which, indeed, they closely resemble, except as to size, 

 their measurement across the expanded wings being a little over two 

 inches; they have since been identified by Mr. Kirby at the British Mu- 

 seum as Nothochrysa gigantea. 



THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS IN ALGERIA. Sir Lambert Playfair in his 

 last report on Algerian agriculture remarks on the spread of locusts from 

 the eastern part of the province, to which they had hitherto for the most 

 part confined their ravages, to the central regions. Until the eminent 

 entomologist, D'Herculais, studied the matter carefully, no specific distinc- 

 tion amongst the locust was recognized. He has now shown that there are 

 two species, belonging to separate genera, each of which has very marked 

 peculiarities. These are, the best known or the Biblical species, Acridiiini 

 perligrinuni, and the Strauronotus maroccanns. Their habits are quite 

 different; the former generally arriving suddenly about April or May, in 

 immense flights, and devastating the green crops. The females penetrate 

 deeply into the moist earth and deposit their eggs, from So to 90 in num- 

 ber, enclosed in a cocoon. Two months afterwards the young locusts or 

 crickets are hatched; they grow rapidly, get their wings in 45 days, and 

 then continue their career of devastation far in advance. The other spe- 

 cies appear in a winged state in July and August; they also ravage what 

 green exists at that season, and the females deposit their eggs at a much 

 less depth than the others, generally on rocky ground. The cocoons do 

 not contain more than 30 or 40 eggs, and they remain without being 

 hatched till the Spring of the following year. The first species finds in 

 Central Africa the most favorable circumstances for its development; the 

 second, in more temperate countries, such as the Mediteranean region, 

 and even the Caucasus, Crimea and Asia Minor. It is the latter that has 

 ravaged Algeria during the last few years, but about the middle of De- 

 cember last the arrival of flights of the Acridium was reported from 

 several of the oases of the extreme south. 



Fortunately, man is not the only enemy of the locust. Starlings and 

 Larks feed eagerly on the eggs; wagon-loads of these birds used con- 

 stantly to be sent to the French market, but now the killing of them has 

 been prohibited in the province of Constantine. The larvae of the Boni- 

 byx cantharis and other insects, also get into the cocoons, and often kill 

 from ten to fifty per cent, of the eggs, while minute cryptogamic organ- 

 isms destroy many more. The best method of contending against the 

 locust has been very carefully studied. Much has been accomplished by 

 ploughing the ground deeply as soon as possible after the eggs have been 

 laid, so as to bring them to the surface, and thus allow them to become ' 

 an easy prey to birds and insects. 



