REPORT OF THE ENTOMOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



165 



THE EED-LEGGED LOCUST 



(^Melanoplus femur-rubrum, DeG.) 



One of the notable attacks of the year, mention of which has been made by sev- 

 eral correspondents in Western Ontario, has been that of " Grasshoppers " or more 

 properly Locusts. Their injuries have been most serious in those parts of Ontario 

 which have suffered from a lack of rain. They are also mentioned several times in 

 British Columbian correspondence. In Ontario and Quebec the species of which I 

 have received most specimens, was the common Eed-Legged Locust. 



Occurring with this, however, were many specimens of the Lesser Migratory Locust 

 {Melanoplus atlanis, Riley) and the large green Two-striped Locust (^Melanopius 

 biviitatus, Say). 



Special complaints were made of Locust injuries to oats by many correspondents. 

 Major Lloyd, of Oakville, Ont., and Mr. G. C. Caston, of Craighurst, Ont., speak of their 

 damages in turnip fields, and records of their injuries to vegetation in general were 

 frequent ; the following extracts will give some idea of the losses due to these pests : — 

 " There is almost universal complaint of the damage to the oat crop by grass- 

 hoppers. Four-fifths of the correspondents from the Lake Erie counties refer to 

 them. From Lambton, Simcoe, Middlesex, Northumberland and Durham, Prince 

 Edward, Lennox and Addington, and Frontenac, come reports of great destruction to 

 every thing growing in the fields. Correspondents report them more numerous and 

 destructive than for many years." — Bull. 47, Ont. Bureau of Industries, Aug., 1893. 



" Oats this season are a light crop, owing to the prevalence of rust and the pre- 

 valence of grasshoppers." — BuU.4S, Ont. Bureau of Industries, Nov., 1893. 



" August 15. — I remember seeing in some pamphlet when at Ottawa a descrip- 

 tion of a machine used in the North-west for destroying grasshoppers; can you let 

 me know how this is made and used. The fact is these insects are becoming a per- 

 fect pest in many parts of Ontario, and if something is not done to at least thin out 

 their numbers, the injury to vegetation will be very serious. They have done, I am 

 told, very great damage in the neighbourhood of Woodstock, and the country round 

 there, and out at ray place at Lake Simcoe, my noigb'jours, as well as myself, have 

 sutfered not a little. Last autumn I was very carelul to have all the stubble and the 

 long grass round the sides of the fields cut close, so as not to leave them any har- 

 bourage or place to deposit their eggs, but they are this year more numerous than 

 ever. If you can suggest anything that we can do to lessen the evil, I shall be very 

 much obliged if you would drop me a line. If they go on increasing, farming in 

 Ontario will suffer a heavy blow." 



"August 19. — The grasshoppers, now that the grain is ail in, are turning their 

 attention chiefly to the kitchen garden, where they are playing havoc with everything, 

 and there does not seem to be any effectual method of fighting them." — Hon. G. W. 

 Allan, Toronto, Ont. 



The life history of the Eed-legged 

 Locust is briefly as follows : — It is 

 single-brooded. The eggs are laid in 

 the autumn but hatch only thefoUowing 

 spring. The young pass through five 

 successive moults, attaining their full 

 growth in July, when they have well 

 developed wings. The females deposit 

 their eggs in symmetrical masses called 

 pods within burrows bored with their 

 abdomens ; each female lays 3 or 4 pods 

 of Qgg^ before she dies, each pod con- 

 taining about 30 eggs. Prof. S. A. 

 Forbes says: — " They select by prefer- 

 ence for oviposition hard and dry 

 ground, roadsides and pastures being 



Fig:. 



-Locusts laying their eggs. 



