29 



" From these notes, from my own recollections and from the recollections of my chil- 

 dren, I infer that Mttoes make their appearance about the middle of August, that they 

 pair and oviposit before the winter sets in, and that they never survive the winter ; and_ 

 that they are very seldom, if ever, found under stones in the neighbourhood of 

 Toronto." 



Prof Riley has made some observations on Epicauta viitata. He describes the eggs 

 of rittala as follows : Length, 008 inch, five times as long as wide, elliptical and so uni- 

 form in diameter that it is difficult to say which is the anterior end, though there is a 

 slight difference. Egg sometimes very slightly curved. Colour, very pale whitish yel- 

 low, smooth and shining. 



The young larva is yellowish-brown, borders of head and tliorax and of joints some- 

 what more dusky than general surface ; tip of jaws and eyes dark brown. Legs and 

 venter paler ; venter not corneus except at sides and across segments eleven and twelve. 

 About ten stiff hairs visible superiorly on the posterior border on the middle segments, 

 with a cone-like prominence at the base of each, and six minor bristles in front of them. 

 Then' are also rows of fainter ventral Ijristles. 



The curious history of these insects throws some light on the fact that while in some 

 localities they are enormously abundant one season, they will be very scarce another. It 

 is to be expected that there would be an alternation between the abundance of certain 

 species of hymenopterous insects and cantharides. When the insects they prey on are 

 abundant the blistering beetles multiply amazingly, and during this immense multiplica- 

 tion exhaust the stock of material on which they feed to such an extent that a year of 

 creat abundance in any given locality can scarcely fail to be followed by a season of cor- 

 responding scarcity. In other, and sometimes adjacent localities, where the same causes 

 have not operated to a like extent, the insects may be common enough. The great abun- 

 dance of the sociable and solitary bees in the great plains of the West will pro- 

 bably always afford food sufficient to admit of the maturing of large broods of can- 

 tharides. 



The Destructive Locust of the West. 

 By Rev. 0. J. S. Bethune, M. A. 



In our last two Reports— those for 1874 and 1875— we 

 devoted a considerable portion of our space to the consider- 

 ation of the history, ravages, etc., of the destructive Locust 

 of the West. As "a supplement to the accounts that we 

 ' then laid before the reader, we now beg to draw his atten- 

 ^ tion to the following excellent summary of the migrations 



Caioptonua fenmr-rubnim. ^f jjjjg ^^gt noxious iusect, and the suggestions that are 



made for the alleviation of the plague. The article is taken from the current number of 

 the American Naturalht, and is from the pen of Prof A. S. Packard, Jr.-one of the ablest 

 American Entomologists of the day. • »• „„ „f fU.. 



" The followin-' remarks Concerning the probable causes of the migrations ot the 

 western locust are extracted from a forthcoming report on this and other injurious insects 

 in Prof F V Hayden's Annual Report of the United States Geological and Geographical 

 Survey' of the Territories for 1875. The facts and theories were in part suggested by ob- 

 servations made by myself in Colorado, Utah, and Wyonii.ig, in 18.5, while attached or 

 a few weeks to the Survey, and in part by the reports of Prof. C. V. Riley S ate Ento- 

 mologist of Missouri, and by the statements of Prof. Cyrus Thomas, SUxte Entomologist 

 of Illinois, and Hon. W. N. Byers of Denver, and others 



" In dealin- with this fearfully destructive insect, which has attracted so much notice 

 from the publie,"an.l in seeking for remedies against its devastations, it is of prime im- 

 portance to have a thorough knowledge of its breeding places the frequency and extent 

 of its migrations, and to seek for the connection between the direction ot the winds and 

 other meteorological phenomena, and the flights of the locust. 



