Proceedings, 192 i. 123 



In dealing with Camnula pellucida, which has the habit of congregating 

 in a few concentrated areas for oviposition, although the adults may be 

 scattered over large tracts of land, there are several methods of control 

 which have been practised in the States. The limits of the breeding- 

 grounds must be carefully ascertained during the egg-laying season, and this 

 area may then be ploughed, if ploughing is possible. A trench may, further, 

 be dug around the area, into which the tiny hoppers will fall when they 

 begin to migrate, which they do as soon as hatched, hopping always towards 

 the sun instead of remaining close to their egg-capsules, which is the case 

 with most of the other species. If this trench can be flooded from some 

 irrigation-ditch it will be still more effective. In some cases where the 

 breeding-grounds are flat and hard, rollers have been employed and the 

 ground gone over every two or three days during the period when the 

 hoppers are hatching, as this species hatches in great numbers at one time, 

 usually within a week or ten days. The young hoppers have also been 

 sprayed at this time with oil. This proves a very expensive though effective 

 method. Once" the hoppers have left the breeding-grounds and are 

 advancing in swarms they may be caught with the balloon catchers. 

 Camnula pellucida is not easy to poison, as it is on the move most of the 

 time, swinging about on their course, although the general tendency is to 

 travel in a south and south-westerly direction following the sun. During 

 these migrations the locusts never turn aside on account of food, and will 

 pass through a field of alfalfa or grain, eating the plants in their course 

 completely off, even eating down to the roots below the level of the ground, 

 but leaving the rest of the field untouched. According to E. D. Ball, " If 

 a swarm comes to a body of water, or even an irrigation-ditch, they will 

 pile up against the bank and stay there for a long time, travelling up and 

 down the bank as the sun swings round, but not turning aside or going 

 back." 



This habit of Camnula pellucida -of tra\'elling in compact swarms and 

 always toward the sun has been observed by many writers in the United 

 States and described in their bulletins. From my limited observations and 

 from accounts given to me by people who have observed Camnula pellucida 

 in British Columbia, I do not think that this habit is at all common in this 

 Province. While this species certainly seems to keep together in swarms, 

 more than do the species of Melanoplus, and these swarms travel from 

 place to place, the tendency is to travel from the hatching-grounds to lower 

 levels, where the feed is greener, while immature, and to return to the 

 highest hill-tops for oviposition. There is apparently no tendency to travel 

 toward the sun in this Province rather than away from it, the direction of 

 travel being* determined mostly by the position of the available food and the 

 slope of the ground. 



