47 



tion for some distance around them, they had enlarged these areas in some places for fully 

 half an acre. This year Messrs. Snow and Popenoe ob.served them Slying southward with 

 such ease, by reason of their long wings, that they resembled birds. 



Dissosteira obliierata, Thomas. — Closely related to the above, and very similar in 

 appearance to it, is a second species of these large, long-winged locusts, which was found 

 in injurious numbers along with Camnida peihicida in Idaho last year. It was ([uite 

 common in the Wood River country lying north of Shoshone and in the vicinity of 

 Boisd City, Idaho. One form of this species was described by Saussure as Dissosteira 

 spurcata in his Prodromus CEdipodorum. Tliis is not the (FAipoda obliterata of Stoll. 



Camnula pelhtcida. — This is the insect which has occasionally been very destructive 

 in parts of California and Nevada. It has since spread eastward into Idaho, where it is 

 very destructive the present season, covering an area of at least 1,300 square miles of 

 territory. It also appears in great numbers, with several other species, in the Red River 

 Valley of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba. 1 also observed it abundantly in 

 the Prickly Pear and Gallatin Valleys of Montana, near the mouth of the Yellowstone^ 

 in North Dakota, in portions of Wyoming, Colorado, and the extreme western part of 

 Nebraska. It also occurs in the New England States and British America. This is a 

 species which readily adapts itself to any new locality, being the most easily acclimated 

 of any of our injurious locusts. When once domiciled, it is there to stay, and will require 

 our earnest attention from time to time in the future. In fact I consider this locust, 

 though not migratory, fully as destructive as the Rocky Mountain or true migratory 

 locust, from the fact that it so soon becomes acclimated. 



Acridium americanum, Drury. — This large, handsome locust is the species which 

 occasionally devastates Yucatan, Central America, and Mexico, and even reaches the 

 United States in injurious nnmbers along our southern coasts. It has also been known 

 in dangerous numbers as far northward as the Ohio River, and occurs sparingly as far 

 north as the northern States, but I imagine never reaches British America. 



Dendrotettix longipennis, the Post Oak Locust of Texas. — During the spring of 1887, 

 while visiting Washington County, Tex., to investigate a local outbreak of an injurious 

 locust, I heard of a species that was attacking the oaks of that particular region, and in 

 some places entirely defoliating them. On my way from the region where I had been 

 working to the city of Brenham, we passed through the infested locality, and I obtained 

 some of the insects in question, which were then in the larval stage. A careful exam- 

 ination proved the insect to be new and congeneric with a species heretofore collected 

 only in the vicinity of St. Louis, Mo., and which also occurred only on oak. About a 

 year later this species was described by Professor Riley under the above name. The 

 insect occurs in two forms, long-winged and short-winged. The former flies with great 

 ease and often leaves the trees in midday and alights in fields and other clearings ; with 

 the least disturbance it flies to the tops of the adjoining trees. The larvse and pupte are 

 also exceedingly active and run over the branches and trunks of trees with great rapidity. 

 The eggs are laid in the ground around the bases of the trees. An area of at least 50 

 square miles of forests was completely defoliated by these insects during that and the 

 previous year. 



Melanoplus sprretus, Thomas, the Rocky Mountain or Migratory Locust. This is 

 the insect which is generally referred to as the destructive locust of North America, and 

 has caused more injury during the past 20 years than any dozen of the other species 

 combined. It is this species which we most fear on account of its migratory habits ; so 

 marked is this trait that swarms hatching on the Saskatchewan have been traced to the Gulf 

 of Mexico in one season. Its habits have been so frequently described that further mention 

 is unnecessary. Suffice it to say that at the present time it is again decidedly on the in- 

 crease along our northern boundary. During the present year reports of its injury were 

 received from Minnesota, North Dakota, and Manitoba by the Department of Agriculture, 

 and upon investigation I found these reports to be only too true. In Minnesota and Dakota 



