115 



the last year from Messrs. Riley, Packard and Thomas, of 

 the Entomological Commission appointed to examine into this 

 evil ; all these articles, however, have been contributed inde- 

 pendently of that appointment. Other papers have been pub- 

 lished by Messrs. G. M. Dawson, Allen Whitman, J. B. 

 Phillips, Geo. Gaumer and H. H. Godfrey. Mr. Thomas' 

 paper is only a reproduction of what he published several years 

 ago. Mr. Dawson's paper is a clear, well-digested account of 

 tlie migrations of this insect and the extent of the region in- 

 fested by it in Manitoba and in the adjoining parts of British 

 America, in 1875. Mr. Whitman's Is a good account of the 

 invasion of Minnesota in 1876, with valuable notes on the 

 habits of the insect ; it appears that tiie state suffered more that 

 year, and had a larger part of its territory invaded, than was 

 the case during the three previous years, when the insects were 

 wholly confined to the southwestern part of the state. Mr. 

 Phillips, not an entomologist, but the Commissioner of Statistics 

 in Minnesota, fills most of his report with a rather useless 

 account of the Asiatic destroyer, but adds some tables of esti- 

 mates of the damage done in his state. Mr. Gaumer's and Mr. 

 Godfrey's reports relate the experiences of these assistants of 

 Mr. Riley in observing the locust in southeastern and north- 

 eastern Kansas. 



By far the most important of all the papers upon the locust 

 are those of Messrs. Riley and Packard. The former, in his 

 ninth Missouri report, adds to our previous knowledge of the 

 history of Caloptenus an account of the method by which the 

 young escape from the egg, reports additional parasites, and 

 gives the result of some valuable experiments upon the vitality 

 of the eggs. He subjected the eggs to alternate freezing and 

 thawing, to different degrees of moisture, to the open air, and 

 to burial at various depths. By his experiments it appears 

 that neither moisture nor sudden alternations of freezing and 

 thawing have much injurious effect upon the eggs, that 

 simple frost is actually beneficial, but that exposure to the free 

 air is decidedly injurious ; so that thorough harrowing will 

 prove an effectual means of destruction. Mr. Riley also gives 

 a very full history of the locust in 1876. 



