REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AXD BOTAXIST. 207 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



June 12. — Several people report locusts killed by Tachina flies. H. Vane reports 



large Jiumbers dead and dying- from Tachina flies, two miles west. There 



are very few here killed by them. 

 June 20. — Locusts have been flying south-east (with the wind) in large numbers. 



These were : M. spretus and the Lesser Migratory ; quite a lot crossed 



the river. 

 June 23. — Lots of locusts leaving. They go with every puff of wind. 

 June 27. — Locusts have nearly all disappeared. A tremendous lot are dead round 



the field, killed by poisoned bran. They can be picked up by handfuls. 

 June 28. — Locusts have ceased to do damage. Most of them have disappeared. 

 August 24. — There has been a slight migration of locusts into this part the last 



few days. They were of the two migratory kinds, and came from the 



south-east. 

 August 30. — There is hardly a locust to be seen. 



' The mixture of Paris green mentioned above is made as follows : One part 

 Paris green, one part salt (the locusts will not eat it without), and eleven parts of 

 bran. Mix into a mash, adding as much water as the stuff' will hold. Spread in as 

 small lumps as possible. We generally use a trowel or thin piece of iron. Get a little 

 of the mixture on the edge and then fling so that it will spread some 15 yards. A 

 pound of Paris green should make enough mixtiire to spread a strip two miles long 

 bv 15 yards wide. Fresh stuff should be spread every two days. The poison takes from 

 two to five days to kill the locusts, so that they are able to fly long distances before they 

 die. They eat it much more ravenously when they are full-sized than they do when 

 young. Everybody who tried this remedy now swears by it ; several of them were 

 heard to say that they will never fear locusts again. I only saw one locust attacked 

 by a hair worm ; this was about 11 inches long, and was seen in July. 



' Xo locusts were seen to lay eggs, nor have I been able to find any eggs in the 

 ground. Those that did most damage were Nos. 7, 11 and 13 of those I send ; the 

 damage done by them was about even. (They are probably the same, M. atlanis, Riley). 



' There was also a small percentage of M. sprefvs, which you identified when you 

 were here. 1 saw several cases of M. spretus mating with M. atlanis (No. 11). 

 This was noted during the migration south-east on June 20, 21, 22 and 23. During 

 this time they got vastly thicker where before there had been very few. 



' The damage done here was greatly over-rated. We lost some 50 acres out of 260, 

 and our fields were the first attacked. Other people lost perhaps a little more which 

 was because ihey did nothing to stop the advance. The locusts had been increasing 

 here for about three years, in fact, considerable damage was done in the latter part of 

 1899.' 



The grasshoppers certainly were answerable for much loss ; but, as compared to 

 the rest of the province, the area where their depredations were of a serious nature 

 was not very large. Many causes added to the loss, which at the time was generally 

 all attributed to grasshoppers. Drought, frost, wind and gophers all did their share 

 of the injui-y, and as the species most concerned were native species which occur on 

 the prairies in some numbers every year, it is to be hoped that this was merely an 

 exceptional outbreak of local species, which will not recur next season. The proba- 

 bility of this recurrence is certainly rendered less probable by the work which has 

 been done this autumn in following out the wise suggestions as to ploughing, which 

 have been made by the provincial Department of Agriculture. 



The two most abundant species throughout the province of Manitoba were M. 

 atlanis, the Lesser Migratory Locust, and Camniila pellncida, the Pellucid Locust. 



These two latter species occurred also in considerable numbers in the Okanagan 

 valley, in British Columbia, where bunch grass pasture lands and grain crops were 

 reported to be seriously affected. 



