328 hEPORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



shrike, Lanius tudovicianus L., catches many of these and other 

 locusts and often impales them on the barbs of wire fences. On 

 one October day I gathered fully a jjint of such impaled insects from 

 a fence row lialf a mile long, and found that they represented six- 

 teen species; eight of grasshoppers, two of katydids, and six of 

 beetles, all injurious, so that this bird, although savage and blood- 

 thirsty, is of great benefit to the farmer and fruit grower. 



M. different talis f according to Scudder, "inhabits the Mississippi 

 Valley from as far north as latitude 43° to the Gulf, and the region 

 to the west as far as the Pacific, from a somewhat lower latitude to 

 central Mexico. I do not think it occurs above 6,000 feet. It cer- 

 tainly is occasionally one of the most destructive pests in the west, 

 particularly in Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, and it has been noted 

 as injuring grass, alfalfa, Indian corn, beets, orchard trees, mull)urry, 

 poplar and catalpa trees, ami even grape vines; also dahlias, holly- 

 hocks and other garden llowers have been specified as its food, not 

 to mention the rag-weed, Ambrosia trifida." Kiley states that "in 

 tlie vicinity of St. Louis, Missouri, the first specimens of this locust 

 were observed to become winged July 19th. Eggs were laid Septem- 

 ber 9th. As a deviation from the usual egg-laying habits of the 

 genus * * * the eggs are sometimes very numerously placed un- 

 der bark of logs that have been felled on low lands. The eggs of 

 this species, unlike those of sprelus, atlanis and femur-rubrum, are 

 not quadrilinearly but irregularly arranged. * * * The head ends 

 of the eggs in the pod point mostly outward. One hundred and 

 seventy-five eggs have been counted in a single mass." Bruner gives 

 the fohowiug summary of its destructiveness and habits: "This in- 

 sect has very frequently multiplied in such numbers in limited areas 

 over its range as to do considerable injury to cultivated crops grow- 

 ing upon low, moist ground; and has even been known very frequent- 

 ly to spread over higher and drier lands adjoining these, its cus- 

 tomary haunts. It is one of the few species of locusts that has thus 

 far shown a tendency toward civilization. This it has done readily, 

 since its habits are in unison with the cultivation of the soil. It is 

 only since the settlement of the country where it originally occurred 

 that it has multiplied so as to become sufficiently numerous as to 

 become a serious pest. * * * 



"Tlie eggs are laid in cultivated grounds that are more or less com- 

 pact, ])referably old roads, deserted fields, the edges of weed patches 

 and well grazed pastures adjoining weedy ravines. Egg laying be- 

 gins about the middle of August and continues into October, vary- 

 ing, (if course, according to latitude and climatic conditions. Us- 



