— 35 - 



dry weather seem to be detrimental to tlie cg-gs of this locust; 

 anda combination of hot and Avet or cold and wet have a Hke 

 effect. Though in the latter instances many are destroyed 

 by molds. 



During the past year in certain localities about General Acha 

 in Pampa Central where the eggs were deposited in sandy soil 

 man}' of them were blown out of the ground, while others 

 were so deepl}^ buried that they either failed to hatch or the 

 3^oung to reach the surface. 



Neither can the saltonas when first hatched withstand much 

 heat combined with drought. The present season we had an 

 excellent proof of this assertion in the provinces of San juan 

 and Mendoza where they hatched in large numbers all through 

 the foothills along the eastern slopes of the Andes. Oa account 

 of the failure of rains at the usual season nearly evervone of 

 them shrivelled up and died. This condition of a flairs I was 

 informed existed for several hundred miles nortii and soutli. 

 Even round about Carcaraiia and at other places in the pro- 

 vinces of Santa-Fé, Cordoba, Entre Rios, Buenos Aires, and 

 Pampa Central, like d\Mng off of the young saltonas was observ- 

 ed and reported b_y correspondents. Personal observations 

 also confirmed these reports. On the other hand, very wet and 

 warm conditions when combined had a tendency- towards 

 developing disease among the insects. \V"et weather in some 

 localities also favored the entrance into their bodies of the 

 hair-worm which is described in another chapter. 



Even the winged insects cannot withstand all kinds of clima- 

 tic changes without suffering from the effects of them. 'I'hey 

 can be killed by heat and cold, b}' very wet and b\' very dry 

 climatic conditions. Only last week, the latter part of January, 

 T learned of the presence of large numbers of the voladoras 

 piled up in windrows among the snow-drifts high up in the 

 Andes where they had perished in their attempts to cross the 

 Cordilleras. To-day i P^ebruary '2n^i ) there are hundreds of 

 dead locusts lying about the streets of Carcaraña and camp 

 in the immediate vicinity that were drowned by the long-con- 

 tinued and heavy rain of yesterday and last night. 



If the weather be too dry when the insects are passing through 

 their last molt large numbers of them die because the}' cannot 

 perform the arduous task, while others are left in sucha crippled 

 condition as to leave them no better off as locusts than they 

 would be had thevdiedalong with their more fortunate relatives. 



