INSECTS ATTACKING CEREALS AND GRASSES. 47 



ones) are available to some extent in the warfare against the 

 winged ones. In the morning and evening, when they are little 

 inclined to take wing, the various methods of catching and crush- 

 ing may be used. 



Kansas Notes. — The Red-legged Locust (Melanoplus femur- 

 rubrwri) has not been known, in recent years at least, to do seri- 

 ous damage in the State, even locally. It may be seen, however, 

 every summer in comparative abundance on the road-side plants 

 and among rank vegetation. 



The Differential Locust (Melanoplus differentialis') has, annually, 

 of late, committed depredations of some extent in the western, 

 especially southwestern, part of the State. Last year (1891), re- 

 ports from Garden City ( Finney county) during the latter half 

 of July indicated the presence of differentialis and bivittatus in 

 alarming numbers in growing crops, especially alfalfa. This year, 

 Hamilton county has reported (V. S. Jones, Syracuse, July 28) 

 differentialis and bivittatus. " They are eating nearly everything 

 bearing fruit," writes Mr. Jones. "I think they are worse on 

 mulberry and catalpa trees." 



In the fall of 1891, Prof. Herbert Osborn, special agent of the 

 Division of Entomology, United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, visited Kansas to investigate the reported damages by grass- 

 hoppers. His report is published in Bulletin No. 27 (1892) of 

 the division. Professor Osborn found differentialis and bivittatus 

 in Finney county seriously injuring the alfalfa. He says : 



The alfalfa was badly stripped, the blossoms and seeds entirely eaten 

 up, and in many patches the stems were stripped bare of leaves, look- 

 ing brown and dead. The grasshoppers, mostly differentialis, with a 

 considerable number of bivittatus, when rising in front of me as I walked 

 through the field, formed a cloud 8 or 10 feet high, and so dense as to 

 hide objects beyond them. The territory examined was the irrigated 

 portion of the Arkansas valley, lying in Finney, Kearny and Hamilton 

 counties. . . . The whole area extends, with occasional breaks, a 

 distance of about 50 miles along the river, and forms a strip from one 

 to five miles wide, but limited entirely to areas where irrigation has 

 been practiced. 



According to Professor Osborn, "alfalfa is the crop in which 

 there is the most loss, but orchards are [were] suffering badly, and, 

 were they extensive throughout the district, would very probably 

 present the heavier loss." Professor Osborn believes that the eggs 

 are deposited along the sides of or in the irrigating ditches, which 



