THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



25] 



of this species arc about 1 inch in length and vary in color from a lighl 



velfow to ashy In-own. They have 1 n very destructive in recent years 



on farms bordering uncultivated lands and the rolling foothills. 



Schistocerca venusta is a large, greenish-colored grasshopper, which 

 has been observed to be very destructive to alfalfa and maize. 



Besides those mentioned, there are a multitude of other species 

 responsible for great annual destruction to our crops. 



BREEDING GROUNDS. 



It is of the greatest importance that farmers acquaint themselves with 

 the breeding grounds of the different grasshoppers. Some of the 



species, like Melanoplus dif- 

 fi n ntiaUs, apparently find 

 the crowns of alfalfa plants 

 most favorable places for de- 

 positing their eggs, and select 

 especially those plants grow- 

 ing along ditch banks, check 

 ridges, or any higher portions 

 of a field. Other species 

 favor the roadsides, ditch 

 hanks and uncultivated areas 

 where weeds and grasses have 

 been allowed to grow un- 

 molested for a period of years. 

 Then again, Camnula pellu- 

 cida, one of our smaller but 

 most destructive species, de- 

 posits its eggs in great abund- 

 ance on the grass-covered 

 foothills. The breeding 

 grounds of these grasshoppers may readily be discovered by watching 

 where the adults collect in late summer months and by the appearance 

 in great abundance of the small hoppers in early spring. 



DESTROYING GRASSHOPPERS IN THE FOOTHILLS. 

 Those species of grasshoppers selecting the UTass-eovered slopes of 



the foothills, their most favored breeding grounds, hatch in the early 

 spring, feed upon the green, tender grasses for a time and then, with 

 the drying of the grasses, work their way down the hillsides into the 

 gulches, and swarm down in great hordes over the cultivated fields of 

 the irrigated valleys below. Communities suffering annual loss from 

 such species can not afford to wait until these pests have fed and 

 developed upon the grazing lands and then spread out over the fields. 

 before taking measures for their destruction. 



These grasshoppers can he most effectively poisoned while they are 

 still young and in great swarms on their native breeding grounds and 

 working their way down the gulches. They should under no con- 

 sideration he allowed to come all the way down ami spread over the 

 cultivated fields. 



•"ii;. K7. — The pellucid grasshopper, Camnula 

 pellucida. Natural size. (After Essig. Inj. 

 and Ben. Ins. 'its of California.) 



