1NTRUJ3UCTIOX 



Although other insects very frequently commit an equal 

 amount of damage to the crops and other vegetation of a 

 country, they usually work much slower than do locusts. 1'he 

 former, besides Avorking slowly, also do much of their injury 

 during the night or while hidden from view; while the latter sud- 

 denly drop upon the region, as from the clouds, and in a day or 

 two change the whole aspect of the country. In place of the 

 beautiful panorama of green and g-old, that existed only yes- 

 terda)", we have before our eyes to-day a barren waste on 

 which only the bare skeletons of the products of soil and 

 labor remain to remind us ot our losses. No wonder then that 

 of all insect pests these locust-swarms are most dreaded b}' 

 the human race. 



Every country ot any great extent of which the temperature 

 is warm or hot, and a considerable portion of which is arid or 

 semi-desert, or where the climate is liable to much variation, 

 lias its locust-swarms. If we read ancient history we find 

 mention made of losses occasioned by these insects. They have 

 occurred in times past and continue to appear at intervals in 

 southern and eastern Europe ; north and south Africa ; west, 

 middle and southeastern Asia ; south and middle Australia ; the 

 United States, Mexico, and Central America. Besides many of 

 the islands adjoining these various countries are occasionally 

 overrun by the pests. In nearly every one of these different 

 regions the species of locusts concerned in the devastations are 

 distinct from those found in the others. In Europe, Asia and 

 Africa we find at least a dozen distinct kinds of these destruc- 

 tive locusts ; while in Australia at least two or three others 

 occur. Possibly North America is the most unfortunate of all 

 countries in this respect, for fully two dozen distinct forms of 



