22 INJURIOUS INSECTS OF KANSAS. 



porting its attacks on sprouting corn. The correspondent said : 

 " When the corn is almost through the ground, the lice collect on 

 the sprout as thick as they can possibly hang, when in a day or 

 two the sprout withers and dies." Specimens were taken in a 

 corn field in Riley county, August 1, this year (1892). 



ROOKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. 

 {Melanoplus spretiLS Thomas; Order, Orthoptera.) 



Diagnosis. — A locust or grasshopper, measuring from head to 

 tip of front wings (folded) about \\ inches, never reaching Ij 

 inches. Appears in great numbers and attacks all vegetation, 

 preferably cereals and vegetables. 



Attacking also almost all farm and garden produce, shade- 

 trees, shrubs, flowers, and grasses. 



Description and Life-history. — The adult is dirty olive and 

 brown ; front wings with a rather faint row of dirty brown spots 

 extending along the middle from base to tip. Hind wings trans- 

 parent, uncolored; tibiae of hind legs red. The young resemble 

 the adult, except in the matter of wings ; the very young have 

 no wings; older ones have short, pad-like wings, incapable of 

 flight. The adult locusts appear in the summer or fall, coming 

 from the northwest in great swarms; the young appear, if at all, 

 in the spring following fall invasion. The natural home of this 

 pest is on the high plains of northwest United States, but its 

 migratory habits bring it to Kansas. Since 1876, however, it 

 has not appeared in serious numbers. It is a matter of impor- 

 tance to distinguish between this migratory and alien form and 

 the Reg-legged Locust (^Melanoplus femur-rubrum), which is na- 

 tive to the State and does no appreciable harm to cereals. The 

 two species closely resemble each other in appearance, but the 

 Rocky Mountain form has the front wings when folded project- 

 ing at least one-third of their length beyond the tip of the abdo- 

 men, while in the Red-legged Locust the front wings just reach 

 the tip of the abdomen, or project very slightly. The last joint 

 of the abdomen of the males in the Rocky Mountain species is 

 turned up like the prow of a canoe and is notched so that two 



