230 REPOET OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



and notably Galoptenus differ entialis, a species occurring from tie At- 

 lantic to the Pacific, and which, though ordinarily sedentary, is capable 

 under exceptional circumstances of extended flights.* Feeling the im- 

 portance of the subject to the California people, Mr. D. W. Coquillett, 

 of Anaheim, was commissioned and instructed to make a thorough in- 

 vestigation of the occurrence cited. 



Mr. Coquillett's report is included among the reports of agents, and 

 it will be unnecessary, therefore, to go into any details here. Mr. Albert 

 Koebele was also commissioned to make observations at Folsoni, and 

 some notes from him are also added. 



We may remark, however, that although Mr. S. H. Scudder, in liis 

 original characterization of Melano])li(s devastator^ correctly infeired that 

 this species "probably, rather thanil/. atlanis, is the source of most of 

 the damage to crops in California," t yet this is the first year in which 

 it has been reported and recognized as an injurious, and at the same 

 time migratory, species. In considering the injurious species of the 

 Pacific coast, in the First Report of the United States Entomological 

 Commission, this species was not mentioned. Subsequent reports 

 showed, on the contrary, that Camnula peUucida, Scudder, was the chief 

 culprit.! In fact, this was the species that did the injury in 1878 and 

 1879, as will be seen by the correspondence with Mr. J. G. Lemmon, of 

 Sierra Yalley, Cal., and by other data, recorded on pages 24G-257 

 of the Second Eeport of the Commission. The specimens transmitted 

 to us from Sierra Valley and other places in 1878 and 1879 by Mr. Lem- 

 mon proved to be Camnula pellucida, but a few specimens of another 

 species which Mr. Lemmon calls "a suspicious species, which I fear is 

 Calo2)tenus atlanis,^^ proved to be If. devastator. This last was also found 

 by Dr. Packard on his Western trip in 1877, and is figured on Plate xvii, 

 Figs. 2, 3, 19, and 20 of the Second Eeport of the Commission. 



It was rather remarkable, therefore, to find Melanojjliis devastator the 

 chief culprit the present year. For, while other species, some of them 

 common to the Atlantic coast, as will be seen by Mr. Coquillett's re- 

 port, were also concerned in the injury, this was by far the most nu- 

 merous, as the observations of all correspondents and the specimens 

 received bear evidence. This species is really the Pacific coast repre- 

 sentative of our Eocky Mountain species, or M. spretus, and in fact 

 many of the longer winged specimens resemble it so closely that it is 

 not surprising that the first references to its injury the present year 

 were under this name. 



In all essential particulars the habits of devastator are identical with 

 those of spr-etus. 



Geographical Range. — Mr. Scudder, in his original characterization 

 (I. c, p. 46), records it as "being especially abundant in the Shasta Val- 

 ley, and found also at Sisson's (Packard) and Sauz^lito, Cal. (Behrens); 

 occurs about Lake Tahoe, Eeno, and Glen Brook, l^ev. (Packard); and 

 was taken by myself sparingly at Beaver Brook and Morrison, Cal." 

 The specimens we received in 1879 from Mr. Lemmon came trom Sierra 

 Valley, Sierra County, California. Mr. Bruner, in his " First contribu- 

 tion to a knowledge of the Orthoptera of Kansas," p. 138,§ records the spe- 



* See OTir Seventh Annual Report on the Insects of Missouri, pp. 153-155; also chap, 

 xriii, First Report United States Entomological Commission. 



t Entomological Notes, vi, p. 46, reprinted from Proceedings Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History, vol. xix, 1877-^78. 



} Second Report United States Entomological Commission, chapter xii, "Locust rav- 

 ages in California," pp. 242, ff. 



$ Washburn Coll. Biol. Survey of Kansas, 1885. 



