75 



at least two instances he has seen armies of them, at least two hundred 

 to three hundred yards in width, packed closely together, moving across 



Fi2 4. 



the road, apparently in search of water, as there was a creek a short 

 distance in the direction in which they were going. The vegetation of 

 the neighborhood was coarse grass, but Mr. Thomas states that he could 

 not say positively as to their eating it or damaging the vegetation to any 

 considerable extent, although it is highly probable that they do, as 

 they appear to be almost omnivorous, collecting in great numbers on the 

 dung dropped by horses, and feeding upon it. In several instances they 

 were observed catching and eating the Cicadas, which were also in 

 immense numbers on the bushes. The eggs are laid in the open plains, 

 and in the act of deposition, the ovipositor of the female is placed in an 

 almost perpendicular position, being inserted into the earth nearly its 

 whole length. 



Mr. James McKnight, who lives in Salt Lake City, states that 

 when the Mormons first emigrated to Utah this cricket appeared in 

 immense swarms, destroying their whole cr'ops of wheat, &c., and that 

 the second year they also appeared, but providentially, or miracu- 

 lously, as it Was deemed by the Mormons, vast flocks of white gulls 

 suddenly appeared and destroyed the crickets to such an extent as 

 to almost eradicate them for the time being, thus saving the remain- 

 der of the crop, upon which alone the half-starved Mormons had to rely 

 for food for the next season. Since that time, these birds areheld almost 

 sacred in Utah. This so-called cricket, Anahrus simplex., can readily be 

 distinguished from another brown cricket-like insect which also inhabits 

 Utah, Udeopsylla roMista, which differs from the first-mentioned by being 

 of a mahogany color, and by having sharp spines on the under side of 

 the posterior thighs. It is never so numerous, but being found in the 

 same section of country, these different insects have been frequently 

 confounded by the common people. These " crickets" are eaten by the 

 native Indians, generally roasted and pounded into a coarse-grained 

 meal, a sample of which, from Camp Harney, Oregon, is on exhibition 

 in the museum of the Department, known as " pulverized crickets," 

 among which the heads and legs of Anahrus simplex are very abundant. 



In an agricultural journal a notice appears that " a machine has been 

 invented at Salt Lake City to kill grasshoppers, the great pest of that 

 region, and consists of a frame drawn by two horses, having an apron 

 projecting forward close to the ground to scrape up the locusts, with a 

 hood above it, forming a box, open in front. At the rear of the machine 

 is a pair of rollers geared together, the upj)er one driven by the carrying- 

 wheels, of, which it forms the axle. Whatever finds its way into the 

 ftont of the machine is passed between these rollers and effectually 



