MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 293 



of St. Louis county, and was frequently brought or sent to me as a dep- 

 redator upon vegetables. So far as it came under my personal observa- 

 tion, however, when found in gardens, it was merely feeding upon 

 the grasses that had come up among the other plants. The moths 

 were unusually abundant during September. 



During the latter part of the season there was an unusual outbreak 

 of our indigenous locusts (grasshoppers). The meadows, gardens, 

 berry beds, nurseries and young orchards were seriously ravaged by 

 these pests. The species most abundant were Schistocerca americana, 

 {Edipoda sulphurea, (E. xantJioptera, Melanoplus bivittatus, and the om- 

 nipresent M. femur-rubrum. In some of tfie nurseries and newly set 

 orchards of St. Louis county not a leaf was left entire on apple, pear 

 and plum trees, and the tender twigs were also in many instances com- 

 pletely barked, thus destroying the season's growth. Spraying with 

 Paris green was resorted to by numbers of nurserymen, and, in a meas- 

 ure, protected the stock from premature defoliation. So far as I can 

 learn, the hopper-dozer is not extensively, if at all, used in Missouri, 

 and, indeed, on the hilly and uneven surface of the greater part of the 

 State it could not be employed to much advantage. 



Among orchardists there was, in the spring, great complaint of the 

 work of the Buffalo tree-hopper fCeresa bubalusj. Bundles of scarred 

 and blighted twigs were sent to me from many sections of the State, 

 including the Olden fruit farms, in Howell county, the most extensive 

 in the country, and the Flint Hill orchards, in Oregon county, both on 

 the southern boundary of the State ; from Kansas City on the west, and 

 from Holt county in the extreme northwest, showing that the insect is 

 by no means local. A considerable proportion of these twigs showed 

 the cuts of several previous years, as well as the more characteristic 

 recent punctures. From this it would seem that the insect remains in 

 the neighborhood of its breeding place until the languishing branch or 

 tree no longer affords it sustenance. Like all haustellate species, it 

 can be exterminated only by such insecticides as kill by contact, such as 

 kerosene emulsion, thymo-cresol, and preparations of carbolic acid ; 

 and the use of these on the tender foliage, amid which the little spiny- 

 backed hoppers lurk in the early summer, is apt to have a bad effect. 

 From eggs placed the preceding autumn was bred in considerable num- 

 bers a minute egg parasite, which proved to be an undescribed species 

 of Cosmocoma. This little fly had destroyed the larger proportion of 

 the eggs ^ent to me, and may in time render its host innocuous. The 

 tree-hopper is quite common in the vicinity of St. Louis, but no con- 

 spicuous injury from it has come under my observation. 



