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the Chilian Government commissioned me to investigate into 
the cause of alarm, and to report upon it. 
In Central and Northern Chile there is a locust, the 4. 
cancellatum, very similar in size and structure to the Argentine 
species, but differing much in colour, especially in having a 
dull reddish orange longitudinal stripe on the dorsal part of 
its thorax. It also differs widely in not being at all social or 
eregarious. Ihave known this species for nearly a quarter 
of a century, and for some years it has been moderately com- 
mon in my garden, and I have often wondered that it never 
appeared in numbers, nor did any perceptible harm. 
The Argentine species I also know very well, having seen 
great numbers on the Argentine pampas; and I have always 
seen it with a dull yellowish-green coloured thorax, never with 
any sign of a reddish stripe. 
T also knew that in the south of Chile the A. cancellatwn 
was never found, though there were some smaller species of 
Acridium very destructive to crops in regions where woods 
have been cut down and farming carried on, and fully ex- 
pected to find these to be the species complained of. 
Arriving at the south, in the famous Araucania, I found 
that the Argentine locusts had really invaded this country 
in millions. They had passed near Villa Rica, about lat. 
89° §., at 4000 ft. above the level of the sea. Immense 
numbers had died in the snowy pass, but the survivors 
devoured the poor Indians’ crops of beans, potatoes, tobacco, 
&e. Having rested and fed, they formed two columns, one 
flying N.W., and the other S.W.; a few days afterwards 
some forty tons of eggs, according to a rough calculation, were 
laid. I had reason to believe that there were two or three 
other invasions by passes rather more to the north. I saw 
many thousands of live specimens, and all were coloured just 
as the Argentine species should be. 
Having given in my report to the Government, in which, 
of course, urgent measures were recommended, 200,000 dols. 
was voted by the Congress to defray expenses of destroying 
them; and there the matter rested till the end of April, when 
the clamour in the south became great on account of the 
immense numbers of larve that had hatched out, and were 
