275 



THE WESTERN CRICKET IN UTAH IN THE FORTIES. 



Perhaps the earliest instance of damage to enltivated crops by the 

 western cricket {Anabrus simplex Hald.) is that reported by the Hon. 

 George Q. Cannon in a recent speech as tenii)orary chairman of the 

 third irrigation congress (Irrigation Age, 1894, p. 188). This account 

 is also interesting from the complete destruction of the cricket in this 

 instance by gulls. In describing the agricultural conditions in Utah in 

 1848, Mr. Cannon states that the "black crickets came down by millions 

 and destroyed our gram crops; promising fields of wheat in the morn- 

 nig were by evening as smooth as a man's hand — devoured by the 

 crickets." At this juncture, he says, " Sea gulls came by hundreds 

 and thousands, and before the crops were entirely destroyed these 

 gulls devoured the insects so that our fields were entirely freed from 

 them." * * * "I have been along the ditches in the morning," he 

 adds, "and have seen lumps of these crickets vomited up by the gulls 

 so that they could begin killing them again." 



The cricket here referred to will be remembered as the one that fre- 

 quently travels in enormous hordes in the West, stopping at no obstacle, 

 river or other, and is the one also, on the authority of Thomas, eaten 

 by the Indians, either roasted or simply after the head and limbs have 

 been removed. A recent account of damage by it is given in Insect 

 Life (vol. vi, p. 17).* 



On the authority of Dr. A. K. Fisher, of this Department, the bird 

 referred to above is undoubtedly Franklin's gull, ( LarusfranJclhii) which 

 occurs in enormous flocks about the small fresh- water lakes of the North- 

 west, and feeds in great companies on Orthoptera of all sorts. 



Mr. Vernon Bailey, in the Annual Eeport of the Ornithologist for 

 1887, describes the feeding of large flocks on grasshoppers in Dakota 

 near Devils Lake, and Dr. Fisher says that this habit is frequently 

 observed throughout the grasshopper and cricket regions. In this the 

 gulls are assisted by certain hawks, the work of the latter being noted 

 also by Mr. Thomas in the report of his western journey of 1871. A 

 flock of 500 Swainson's hawk {Buteo swainsoni) which is probably the 

 species seen by Thomas and others, was observed feeding on Anabrus 

 in Colorado by Mr. A. S. Bennett, and the stomach of one of the hawks 

 shot at the time contained six of the insects.t — C. L. M. 



an IMPORTANT SCALE INSECT ON COTTONWOOD. 



Mr. W. S. Connor, of East Atchison, Mo., has sent us a large and 

 striking scale insect upon young cottonwood trees which is seriously 

 damaging a very considerable plantation in his vicinity. The insect 

 belongs to the genus Prosopophora and is a new species. It is, as before 

 stated, very large and conspicuous, and clusters upon the trunks of 



*See also U. S. E. C, vol. ir, p. 163; Ibul., vol. in, p. 61. 

 t Hawks and Owls of the United States, Fisliei-, p. 77. 



