306 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



One feature of this year's storms in the valley of the Yellowstone and 

 Missouri Eiv.ers was the great amount of large hailstones which fell and 

 destroyed many locusts. Some of these hail-storms were so severe that 

 for several days after they had occurred dead locusts by the hundreds 

 were to be found upon the prairies. These storms were also injurious 

 to crops— far more so than the locusts would have been that were killed 

 by tliem. The great amount of rain which fell, on the other hand, was 

 the means of i)roducing a greatly-increased crop of grasses uiJon the 

 prairies, which otherwise must have been almost entirely devoured. 



Next to the Rocky Mountain Locust the species most to be feared in 

 this region is the Lesser Locust, Melanoplus atlanis, Riley, whicli in 

 many places was seen in numbers fully twice as great as the foiincr. 

 The species here dili'ers Ixom the typical specimens of tlie East in the 

 color of the posterior tibiae. Those of the East invariably have tlieso 

 members reddish, while most of those occurring here have them green- 

 ish-blue. The Northwestern specimens are also somewhat larger and 

 have a brighter, healthier appearance than do those of their Eastern 

 kindred. Otherwise there appears to be no diiierenco in the species as 

 found in the two widely-separated districts. This species, although 

 congregating in great numbers at various points, was not observed to 

 accompany M. sprchis in its flights ; neither was it noticed to migrate 

 separately by flight. The species in its habits is quite similar to that 

 of M. S2)rctus in many respects, while in others it differs from those of 

 that insect. For example, it seldom, if ever, deserts tracts of rank or 

 succulent vegetation for the higher, comparatively barren hill -tops, as 

 does sprctus at times, neither does it choose open localities for the depo- 

 sition of its eggs, but prefers to hide them among the grasses on rather 

 moist than dry groui^d, in this respect imitating the habits of M. femur- 

 ruhrum and ill. bivitfata. 



Camnula peUucida {(EiUpoda atrox), one of the destructive California 

 species, has also become a very numerous species in the valley of tho 

 Yellowstone and Upper Missouri Rivers, and if it continue to increase 

 and spread as rapidly during the next live years as it has during tho 

 past five years, it will also become a plague on the eastern slope of 

 the Rocky Mountains, as it has been in times past on the Pacific slope. 

 Three years ago the species was first seen by me in the valley of the 

 Yellowstone at Livingston, and two years previous in the valley of tho 

 Gallatin, Madison, Jefferson, Big Hole, and Prickly Pear Rivers. It 

 has now reached eastward to a point below the junction of the Yellow- 

 stone with the Missouri at Fort Buford. It has also been observed by 

 me throughout the Snake River country, in the Salt Lake Valley and 

 also the valleys of the streams of Colorado, Wyoming, and Kew Mex- 

 ico. From its habit of frequenting rather low grounds among rank veg- 

 etation, and the comparative ease with which it adapts itself to the 

 various conditions of climate, there is some danger of its becoming per- 

 manently acclimated throughout the Missouri and Mississippi Valleys. 

 If this should be the case, some damage to crops must annually result 

 therefrom. 



Aside from these three species, there probably never need be any 

 fears of injuries from locusts in this region in question, unless it should 

 be occasioned by Melanoiilus devastator, the locust which has been the 

 occasion of some damage to crops in Northern California an<l Southern 

 Oregon during the present year. This insect also occurs in the U[)i)er 

 Yellowstone Valley, and if circumstances should favor its increase in 

 sufficient numbers, it too would become injurious. 



All the remaining so-called " native suecies," with but few exceptions, 



