PUOCEEPIXGS, 1!)15. 41 



every kind of flower — viz., aster, daliUas, clirysanthemums, daisies, roses, and many 

 others. Tlie damage caused by tliem is often lost sigllt of, Imt in tlie order we bave 

 several economic pests, the most important, in our connection, being the greenhouse 

 thrip, which is credited as being one of the most injurious of all greenhouse insects 

 in these parts. As yet we have had no one to study these insects under our local 

 conditions ; consequently there is some excellent worlv ready at hand for those 

 interested. 



Slugs. 



Sings in the soil in this part of the world frequently are met with, and their 

 slimy nature make them very disagreeable. Their presence is largely accounted 

 for by somewhat sour conditions of soil, such as wo have in the city, .\pplications 

 of lime will give relief. 



JIOLES. 



According to Mr. E. M. Anderson. Museum. Victoria, we have two species in 

 the immediate vicinity of Vancouver — viz., Townsend's mole (Scoiiaiiiis toicnscridi 

 Bach.) and Gibb's mole {Xeurotricliiis f/ilibsl Baird). The former is 6 inches in 

 length, while the latter is only 3. They are both beneficial, though at times a 

 nuisance. 



Jlr. Day: I shall now ask Jlr. Tom Wilson to read his papers on: (a.) "■The 

 < K-ster-shell Scale" (published in Bulletin ."il. (h.) " Tlie Itemarkalile Outbreak of 

 Locusts of 1914." 



THE OUTBREAK OF LOCUSTS OF 1914. 

 By To.m AVilson, F.R.H.S., Dominion Inspector of Indi.\n ORcrTARD.s. 



This past summer has l)eeu remarkable for an outbreak of locusts which 

 iMcurri'il. The immense range areas of the Interior and the fruit lauds of the 

 OUanagan have suffered equally from the attack, each in its own respective manner. 



Tnie locusts, or short-horned grasshoppers, belong to the entomological family 

 Acridiidte. Some of the most numerous and destructive insects belong to this family. 

 They are widely dispersed throughout many difCerent parts of the world, and do 

 periodical damage in those different parts of the world. They are mentioned in 

 many ancient writings ; for Instance, we read of a plague of locusts in ancient 

 Eg.vpt, a country which still is subject to occasional infestations. They are found 

 in both the Old and New Worlds : Southern Europe, Algeria, India, South Africa, 

 in the Eastern Hemisphere, and in the Argentine, Mexico, and some of the Western 

 United States, as also on the Canadian great plains, and now. owing to several 

 different trains of circumstance, in British Columbia. 



The insects of this family have antennte short, much more so than the body ; 

 the ovipositor of the female also short and composed of four separate plates ; the 

 tarsi are three-jointed. The hind legs are the longest and usually bave stout femora, 

 especially near the base. 



Amongst those species of this family that did most damage during the past 

 sciVson, for there were several species involved, were ilelanopJitu affinis and M. foiiiir- 

 iiihnim, the red-legged locust. The first district in which they came under the 

 writer's notice was in the Similkameen Valley, near Princeton, about the middle of 

 July. They were so numerous that the flight resembled a snow-storm. We found 

 that crops of clover, alfalfa, and the ordinary ha.v-crops had been much injured, so 

 much so as to bring about an appreciable shortage in weiglit per acre, while the 

 ranges or cattle-grazing grounds had been rendered bare. 



A little later in the season we were in the Okanagan country near Kelowna, and 

 the same conditions were found to exist. lu one young orchard which we visited, 

 where that most reprehensible practice "clean cultivation" was being carried on, 

 we found the locusts, after having eaten off the surrounding " range." were tackling 



