23 



about three lionrs in the middle of the dny tlie air, at an elevation ol 

 about two hundred feet, was literally thick with them and j>reat numbers 

 fell in the streets, absolutely takin.^- the city by storm ; they then 

 couimenced their wholesale destruction of every thinjx green in the 

 neighborhood, and their flight en masse resembled a thick snow-storm, 

 and their depredations the sweep of a scythe. In the year 1855, in the 

 North Sacramento Mountains they are said to have been "as thick in 

 the heavens as flakes of snow in a wiutry storm," and in the Sacra- 

 mento Valley, "whole orchards, gardens, and vineyards were consumed 

 by them ; entire fields of young grain, of crops, and vegetables, were 

 eaten up within the space of a single day, leaving the ground like a 

 wilted, blackened desert, and, in some parts of the valley, they annoyed 

 the [)assengers and horses of the pitblic stages to such an extent as to 

 cause the greatest inconvenience, and appear, in some cases, to have 

 positively endangered human life." 



A gentleman residing in Colusa County, in the Sacramento Valley, in 

 the summer of 1855, informed Mr. Taylor, "That these insects appeared 

 to rise out of the eastern boundary of the valley, where it is hot, dry, 

 and sandy, and that on some days they tilled the air so as to obscure the 

 sun ; they consumed all garden vegetables, the leaves and bark of the 

 elder tree, and the young leaves and bark of the small branches of Cot- 

 tonwood, willow, and even the soft green parts of the tules or bulrushes 

 in Stony Creek. In Colusa County llieir dead bodies were seen, at one 

 time, com])letely covering the surface of the water for miles in extent. 

 In some i)arts of the valley they ate through gauze and textile coverings 

 of all kinds, which had been used to shield animals and plants from 

 their attacks." 



From Mr. Taylor's account in the Smithsonian Keportfor 1858, it ap- 

 pears that there are at least three species Fig- 2 

 of grassho])pers or locusts, in California and 

 Oregon, which are very injurious to the crops, 

 but as there are no names or accurate de- 

 S(;riptions given, it is extremely ])roblemati- 

 cal which of them it is that does the most 

 Injury. At the same time his letters were 

 written to the Department, however, he sent 

 two bottles of the insect figured (see Fig. 1) 

 as specimens of the grasshoi)per he wrote 

 about, and named them the Pacific Migra 

 tory Locust, and he says it is undoubtedly 

 an indigenous species, as it was known to the early colonists and mis- 

 sionaries as far back as 1730. 



This grassho])per, or locust, is a little over an inch in lengtli ; is of a 

 pale brownish yellow color, Avith several small, roundish, brown spots, 

 and a large brownish mark on the upper wings, and a dark fuscous spot 

 behind the eye. It bears a very strong resemblance to (Edipoda pellu- 

 cida (S(;udd.) of New England. Indeed had these locusts not come from 

 California direct, and from good authority, they might readily have been 

 mistaken for the last-named insect. It does not appear that any steps 

 Lave yet been taken to destroy these insects in California, but the same 

 remedies used for destroying the Caloptenus sprehis, (Uhler,) or hateful 

 grasshopper, might be adopted. It is of great importance to find oiit 

 where tliey live when young and in the wingless state, as it is at this 

 time — or when in the egg, just below the surface of the earth — that they 

 may be destroyed most readily. 



