14 
show signs of vigorous attack, and the march of destruction com- 
mences. The rather rare occurrence of more grasshoppers, even in 
the adult condition, upon and near the ditch banks seems to be 
explained in the commingled instinct of the young to hunt the retire- 
ment and seclusion of the nesting or egg-laying areas, and of the adult 
to seek, and survey beforehand, suitable places for oviposition. A 
few hours before molting the grasshoppers tend to congregate and 
become sluggish. Ecdysis (molting) varies as to time, and slightly 
as to manner, with different stages. In the early stadia less time is 
required, and the operation takes place upon the ground or upon low 
bunches of grass and weeds. Every effort of the grasshoppers at this 
time seems to be to avoid conspicuity, and in doing so spare them- 
selves, in a manner, enmity of parasites. After molting of the first, 
second, and third stages it is not loag before the young grasshoppers 
are sufficiently hardened to again begin feeding, but often the molt of 
the fourth and fifth stages, particularly the last molt, some time is 
required to extend the wings and dry and harden the body before 
feeding is resumed. The last molt usually occurs upon the upper and 
well-exposed leaves of corn and other plants upon which they may be 
feeding, though it is not uncommon for the grasshoppers to drop to 
the ground during the maneuvers of the process. The reason for the 
selection of the more exposed places for the last molt is obvious. The 
bodies are large, and rapid drying protects them from fungous diseases 
which lurk in the more shaded and moist sections during the months 
of June and July. 
The last prominent habit to which we call attention is that of the 
fully grown grasshoppers to seek the shade offered by the growing 
plants during the hottest part of the day. Upon Dahomy plantation 
they appeared in such numbers a little before sunset as to change the 
entire coloring of the fields. Instead of the rich green, a dishearten- 
ing glistening bronze prevailed. 
MEANS USED TO DESTROY THE BROOD OF 1900. 
The serious loss of 1899, and the alarming increase in the number of 
grasshoppers over 1898, together with the startling number of eggs in 
widely distributed egg areas, caused no little uneasiness as to the out- 
look for 1900. Preventives and remedial operations were begun early 
in the winter and were actively continued until it seemed that all dan- 
ger of serious loss was past. These operations consisted in fall and 
winter cultivation, spraying the egg beds and young grasshoppers with 
coal oil and coal-oil emulsions, covering the ditch water with oil emul- 
sions and driving the young into the trap thus prepared, of using 
improvised tarred sheets, and of different kinds of hopperdozers, and 
finally to disseminate among the developing grasshoppers a disease 
commonly known as ‘‘the South African fungus,” 
