63 



Mr. Cook had found the Bot-fly attack much leas in cleared farms than in wooded 

 ones. In regard to the arsenites, he said that an abundance of Aphids and consequent 

 weakening of the vitality of the tree might make it more susceptible. 



Mr. Smith suggested that the water referred to by Miss Ormerod might contain 

 lime salts so as to make the application more innocuous. He stated that the chemical 

 reasons for the prevention of injury to foliage by the addition of lime water are given in 

 the appendix to his annual report of the present year. 



NOTES ON THE RECENT OUTBREAK OF DISSOSTEIRA LONGIPENNIS. 



BY E. A. POPENOE, MANHATTAN, KANS. 



[Secretary's abstract.] 



July 10 to 19 the author visited the northern part of Lincoln County, Colo., on 

 account of newspaper reports of the stopping of trains by grasshoppers. He found a 

 strip of country 16 by 25 or 30 miles in extent fairly covered with locusts, which proved 

 to be Dissoeteira longipejinis, a western isotype ot' the eastern D. Carolina. They were 

 congregated especially in the boundaries of this area. The country is poor, and planted 

 here and there to corn and sorghum, and there aie occasional patches of garden vegetation. 

 The season has been favourable and cool. The locusts are said to have come in swarms 

 from the South last fall, and to have settled along the Big Sandy Creek in a patch two 

 or three miles in circumference, in which they laid their eggs in great numbers. Upon 

 hatching this spring the young spread outwards. At the time of his visit in the northern 

 part of the strip the insects were in the last larval and pupal stages, with very few 

 imagos. At the south line, however, the winged individuals were very abundant and 

 flew like birds. The young hoppers had the habit of crawling up the side of buildings 

 for a few feet, presumably for warmth They were not strictly confined to roads, but 

 travelled over bluffs and rounded hills, eating the buflfalo and gramma grass. The winged 

 individuals flew always to the south, but the others spread regularly outwards in all 

 directions. The line of march was quite visible at some distance on the hillsides, and 

 sheep-growers had to ch inge the locilities of their tio3ks In marching, as a general 

 thing, they preferred to follow the roads, moving quite rapidly, about one mile in six 

 hours for six or eight hours in a day only. They are credited with all the destruction 

 which has been done Viy all kinds of insects, and he thinks that they did but very little 

 damage to potatoes and corn, although marching through the fields in great numbers. At 

 the time of his visit they were marching through wheat fields in the same way, but since 

 he left they have done some damage to this crop. Many dead ones were noticed in one 

 locality, but no signs of parasitism were found. It is supposed that they were destroyed 

 by hail. In his opinion the insect occurs generally upon low ground rather than upon 

 high ground. 



Mr. Bruner said that this species is very seldom found below 3,000 feet, or above 

 5,500 feet elevation. It occurs in Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and north- 

 eastern New Mexico. It preferably locates itself on the side of the hills or the upper 

 portion of siopes where the vegetation is scattered. Its near ally, D. Carolina, is 

 found throughout North America following civilization in cattle yards, roads, and 

 streets. He had also seen the dead locusts in one locality in eastern Colorado, and 

 considered that they had been killed by hail. 



Mr. Popenoe said that he had really found that they had stopped trains, but upon 

 steep grades only and by greasing the rails. 



Mr. Osborn has found this species in southwestern Kansas in the higher portions of 

 of river valleys and feeding upon the grass along the roads. 



