120 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 5 



The conditions that Professor Washburn explains for Minnesota 

 were largely the conditions which obtained in eastern Nebraska this 

 year, with the exception, however, that one species greatly predom- 

 inated, and that species was the one which he finds only in the southern 

 part of Minnesota. In eastern Nebraska, — I mean by that the east- 

 ern one-third of the State — this species occurred in the cultivated 

 fields almost to the exclusion of the other species. In the corn fields 

 perhaps one specimen in five would be either Melanoplus femur-ruhrum 

 or M. bivittatus, but no more than that, and of these two femur-mhrum 

 was the more abundant. We, therefore, have the unusual condition 

 that, so far as eastern Nebraska is concerned, we have but one species 

 to fight, and that is differentialis. This species occurred, however, 

 in tremendous numbers in some portions of the State of Nebraska, 

 and a great deal smaller crops were obtained because of the the pres- 

 ence of that insect. I happen to have with me a couple of very poor 

 prints which will show something of the injury. One of these I want 

 to pass around. It shows a photograph of a very poorly kept orchard. 

 That is perhaps the reason the hoppers abounded there. But this 

 photograph was taken the latter part of July, and the trees had been 

 entirely defoliated, while the grasshoppers even got to eating the bark 

 off the trees until large strips on the branches were denuded of their 

 bark as well as of the leaves. Now, in western Nebraska, we found, 

 that instead of three species, at least fifteen species occurred in the 

 cultivated fields, and of these, at least six occurred in destructive 

 numbers. But there it was bivittatus which predominated. In the 

 more southern counties differentialis was very abundant, atlanis was 

 also very abundant and fermir-rubrum was abundant in the lower 

 valleys. In addition to these, we had several other species of which 

 there was untold numbers coming into the cultivated valleys from 

 the adjacent or surrounding hills. These hills have never been culti- 

 vated, and the acreage so greatly exceeds the acreage of cultivated 

 lands that there is no way which has occurred to us in which to solve 

 the problem of getting rid of these pests. The use of the hopperdozer, 

 the use of nearly all the poisons which we could think of, and even 

 cultural methods, have no apparent effect upon the hordes of grass- 

 hoppers, principally bivittatus, breeding in this higher land and coming 

 down into the valleys as they grow older. 



We noted, in Nebraska, the same conditions of an abundance of 

 blister beetles. In fact, one farmers' convention, called together for 

 the purpose of discussing the grasshopper plague, partially resolved 

 itself into a convention for the discussion of blister beetles, especially 

 when several farmers stated that they had lost their entire crop of 

 potatoes from this cause. The predominating species there was the 



