Proceedings, 1921. ' 115 



(which was in 1890) they made complete havoc, and unless something 

 iiappens to destroy the eggs before hatching it will be very little use putting 

 in a crop next spring. The eggs are deposited on sandy and gravelly hills 

 (about an inch below the surface). Some of the eggs seem to have 

 become dried, but the majority are quite fertile. Nearly all the grasshoppers 

 have disappeared and a great many have died." 



Mr. S. J. Solomon, in a letter to the Dominion Entomologist, says: 

 " Nicola Lake, December 31st. — I could not grow enough feed to keep any 

 quantity of hogs. The grasshoppers were very bad last summer and laid 

 their eggs, so that we are expecting our crops will be all eaten by them 

 next year. I shall put in very little wheat or oats, but principally peas 

 and potatoes, as they do not bother these crops so much. 



■■ The early disappearance of the locusts mentioned by j\Ir. Pooley 

 would indicate the probable presence of parasitic insects or some fungous 

 or bacterial disease. The most numerous species was Camnula pellucida, 

 which is sometimes extremely abundant and destructive in the West. 

 This was the case between \'ernon and Kelowna in 1895. The other species 

 present were Trimerotropis (probably cincta), Circotettix verruculatus, 

 and M. atlanis." During the years igoo and 1901 reports were received 

 by the Dominion Entomologist of considerable damage to crops and range 

 land in British Columbia. In 1900 it was in the Okanagan Valley where 

 most of the damage was done, where M. atlanis and C. pellucida were 

 numerous and attacked grain-crops and bunch-grass pasture lands. 



In the following year, 1901, the locusts had increased in numbers and 

 were doing considerable damage in several parts of the Province. 

 M. atlanis damaged the foliage of fruit-trees and forage-crops on the 

 Coldstream Ranch at A'ernon. The Nicola \"alley was another district 

 which was badly damaged in 1901, and the range country between Nicola 

 and Kamloops showed many instances of their destructiveness. Throughout 

 this district the grasses on the ranges were severely damaged and the foliage 

 of trees and shrubs in the gullies was attacked. Where cultivated crops 

 occurred, grain-crops, turnips, and garden produce was destroyed by them. 

 The locusts responsible for this destruction in the Nicola-Kamloops region 

 were Camnula pellucida and M. affinis the former doing the most damage. 

 I,ociists were again noticed in numbers in the Okanagan Valley in 1903, 

 and although no serious damage was reported, there was considerable 

 anxiety felt by the ranchers in this region lest there be a repetition of the 

 outbreaks of igoo-1901. The grey-spotted blister-beetle (Epicauta 

 maculata ) was abundant in 1903, feeding on wild plants, and as this insect 

 is predaceous on the locust it was no doubt partly due to its presence that 

 the locusts did not increase in the Okanagan \^alley. The locust Camnula 

 pellucida was fairly numerous in parts of the Dry Belt in 1904 and again 

 in 1907, in which year it did considerable damage, but from this date until 

 19 1 4 no serious outbreaks of locusts were reported from the Province. 



In 1914 the locusts were again present in destructive numbers and 

 young orchards of apple and pear trees were damaged in the Okanagan 

 N'alley by M. atlanis. The Nicola Valley was again attacked by locusts, 



