160 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



caution to cut his grass before the main swarms of locusts arrived — 

 about the 10th of July. 



George Humphrey, out in the valley, remembers the former visita- 

 tion from locusts. He drove stage through the valley in 1861 and 

 says the road was often blocked as by mud holes. They lay in banks 

 along the fences and buildings. They ravaged the valley, then but 

 thinly settled, for three years, then died out. Did not think they 

 moved on into other valleys, but possibly they emigrated. Did not 

 remember of seeing parasites upon them. 



Jonah T. Jones, near Sierraville, confirms the severity of the early 

 visit (confirmed also by E. H. Hamlin, T. S. Batelle, H. K. Turner, 

 and others), and remembers that the young locusts fell into and filled 

 a row of postholes on his ranch. In his granary was obtained pieces 

 of the insect (they had been through the thresher and fanner), that 

 confirmed suspicions of the true character and name of the species. 

 These fragments were sent to Professor Riley, who returned the name 

 of CBclipoda air ox. The compound Greek word oedlpoda (accented on the 

 second syllable, with short sound of i), means "swelled-leg," and 

 refers to the large thigh of the hind or leaping legs. The specific 

 name atrox means " atrocious," " cruel," " destructive." This atrocious 

 locust breeds all over the country from Florida to Alaska, annually, 

 but does not often become so numerous as to be destructive. When 

 forced to search for food they develop migratory habits so readily 

 that it is a question whether or not the instinct, though dormant, is 

 not with them in their most innocent moods. In 1877 locusts 

 icedipoda atrox) ravaged the coast from Point Concepcion to Santa 

 Barbara. Their habits and mischief were closely observed by the 

 distinguished naturalist, Elwood Cooper, near Santa Barbara. The 

 saine year Fresno County was damaged $20,000 by a similarly 

 described locust. In 1859 locusts devastated the valley on the west 

 side of Pit and Fall Rivers, in northeast California. In 1861, as 

 stated by the pioneers of Sierra Valley, locusts ravaged their valley, the 

 insect, as they remember it, being precisely like the present scourge, 

 which comes from the north, the region of the Fall. and Pit Rivers, 

 as did the locusts of 1861. There is much reason to believe that the 

 ravages in all these cases may be traced to the same culprit that has 

 devastated Sierra Valley, and it shows a breadth of the field of opera- 

 tions that may be easily extended north through Oregon and Wash- 

 ington, and down along the coast to the peninsula of California, as 

 also back along the calendar for over 150 years. 



Mr. Cooper states: "They have uniformly appeared from the first 

 to the fifteenth of April. They take wings in about six weeks; are 

 most destructive just after they begin to fiy. In their flight, so far as 

 my experience goes, I am led to believe the direction is instinctive: 

 either with or against a strong current of air, the nearest locality of 

 green food, and in the copulating season to the best locality for the 

 deposit of eggs. The time of deposit begins about the middle of 

 June. From this period they do much less injury, do not seem to 

 require food, gather together in bunches on knolls where the earth is 

 loose and the exposure warm. On these places they are at times two 

 and three deep. The depositing grounds comprise a very small sur- 

 face compared to the whole extent of country where they exist. 

 Much less than half the number are females. The depositing season 

 lasts two or three weeks, when they die or disappear." Mr. Cooper 

 discusses at length the subject of the prevention of locust injuries. 



