49 



perhaps enjoys the greatest geographical range of all our species. It is the common 

 locust in all parts of the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from the Arctic 

 circle to Central America. Its devastations, while perhaps not as vast as some of the 

 preceding, have been more frequent and have occurred at more localities than those of 

 any other one. Like the bivittatus, diff'erentialis, and several of our non-destructive 

 species, femur-rubrum is a frequenter of rather low places and rank vegetation. 



After giving the.se brief notes on the various species of locusts that have been known 

 in .the past to have been connected with the injuries from this class of insects within the 

 country, it will not come amiss for me to say a few words about the subject for the present 

 year, and to give my opinion as to the probable outlook for the coming year. Briefly, 

 then, let me say that there have been received reports of locust injury from the following 

 states : — Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Idaho, Colorado, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and New 

 York. In fact, there have been more separate reports received the pre.sent year than 

 ever heretofore from this cause. 



Now a word or two as to the different species of these destructive locusts that are 

 responsible for the injuries of the ])resent year. In California the devastator is present ; 

 the Camnula pelhtcida is known to be unduly common in Idaho, Minne.sota, North 

 Dakota, and parts of the Rocky Mountain region ; the Rocky Mountain or migratory 

 locust is the one that is responsible for much of the injury that has been reported from 

 the Red River Valley of Minnesota and North Dakota as well as in Manitoba to the 

 north of the international boundary ; MeJannpI na differentialis is the one that must 

 receive much of the bhime for Kansas and Nebraska injury, while in the 

 states of Indiana and Ohio femur rabrum and bivittalus are the guilty parties. Melano- 

 plus atlunis is present in injurious numbers in the Red River Valley along with bivittatus, 

 spretus, and the Camnula petlucida. In Colorado and New Mexico for the first time 

 Dissosteira longipennis has appeared as one of the injurious species of the country. 



While all of these locusts, along with almost every other species of the group which is 

 native to North America, are to be counted as injurious, the particular one that has been 

 the dread of the whole country, and especially of the region lying between the Mississippi 

 River and the Rocky Mountains, is the migratory species — Melanoplus spretus. This 

 insect is now on the increase in a limited area on our northern boundary and across the 

 line in the province of Manitoba. By continuing the prompt and enerj^etic eff"orts that 

 are being carried out by the populace and state authorities of the states of Minnesota and 

 North Dakota we can be assured of success only provided the Canadian government will 

 also see the advantage of co-operation at this time. This, let me state, is all the more 

 necessary at this particular time, as all reports seem to indicate that at present this locust 

 is not present in abnormal numbers in any other part of the entire country. A stamping 

 out of the pest in this region might, therefore, forever give immunity from their further 

 injury. 



Finally, let me urge on the inhabitants of all infested regions that " a stitch in time 

 saves nine." In other words, we do not know what the climatic conditions may be a year 

 hence — whether they will be such as to favor the hoppers or not — so we should do the wise 

 thing and stamp out the pest. This has been done time and again in the past, and the 

 recent work in the north shows how very profitable is the warfare when carried on per- 

 sistently. By the plowing under of the eggs laid last fall, and the use of the kerozene 

 pans or hopperdozers in the destruction of the young locusts that did hatch, the twelve 

 counties in the two states of Minnesota and North Dakota saved, by actual computation, 

 on wheat alone, the sum of ^400,000. This, mind you, was in a year not considered a 

 locust year, and does not take into consideration what was saved in the region in other 

 crops and the injury that might have resulted next year had the hoppers not been 

 destroyed. With every fav. uring circumstance, the comparatively few locusts of this 

 one species that have thus far been de.stroyed the present year in this region would have 

 been sufficient to overrun, at least calculation, the entire area of the state of Minnesota, 

 the two Dakotas and Nebraska, along with portions of Iowa and Kansas. True, these 

 favouring circumstances might never occur, but it is always best to be on the safe side. 

 This we should know from our past experiences with this same insect. 



4 (EN.) 



