THE PRACTICAL ENTOMOLOGIST. 



were personally witnesses of the operations of this 

 insect in Colorado in 1864, assure me that it breeds 

 there in the mountains and comes down into the 

 settlements in vast swarms through the canons 

 (kanyons) or deep perpendicular cuts, leading 

 from the mountains to the more level country. 

 Hence, it is evidently a strictly alpine insect; and 

 when it arrives in Kansas and Nebraska it arrives 

 at a point many thousand feet nearer the level of 

 the sea than its native home, and where conse- 

 quently the "conditions of life," as they are called 

 by naturalists, i. e. food-plants, climate, density of 

 the air, temperature, moisture, &c,, &c., are very 

 different from those of its native home. Now, it is 

 a general law in Organized Nature, as has been 

 clearly expounded by Darwin, {Orit/in of Species, 

 chapter I,) that changes in the "conditions of 

 life" often operate peculiarly and exclusively upon 

 the generative system, so that an animal or a plant, 

 otherwise apparently healthy, becomes unable to 

 reproduce its species. For example, various kinds 

 of Hawks and Falcons have been tamed in very 

 large numbers for the last thousand years for the 

 sport of hawking. Their general health does not 

 appear to suffer at all in confinement. Yet, from 

 the changed " conditions of life" to which they are 

 thereby subjected, they almost invariably become 

 barren ; and there is scarcely an instance on record, 

 of any Eagle, Falcon, Kite, Buzzard or Hawk hav- 

 ing ever bred in a state of domestication, though 

 from the very great p'rice formerly given for the rarer 

 and more highly esteemed species, it must of course 

 have been a pecuniary object to induce them to do 

 so. Experiments in different Zoological Gardens 

 have led to the same result. Applying these gene- 

 ral principles to the case of the Hateful Grasshop- 

 per, we may reasonably expect that the constitution 

 of the insect will be so affected by the great change 

 of climate, air, &e., which it experiences in Kansas 

 and Nebraska, that it will become barren in the 

 autumn of 1SG7, and consequently that the race 

 will then and there die out. And this theory is 

 confirmed by the fact, that although the people of 

 Minnesota were afllioted by what was probably this 

 same insect in 1S5G and 1857, so that -'many re- 

 solved then to keep two years' supply of produce 

 on hand afterwards," yet that after 1857 it totally 

 disappeared there. Indeed, since in the course of 

 the last century or two, many swarms of this in- 

 sect have probably descended into Kansas and Ne- 

 braska from Colorado in different years, ifit was 

 physically capable of propagating for an indefinite 

 number of years in those countries, we should in 

 that case have found it there long ago. But this 

 does not appear to have been the case. 



For these reasons I do not consider that the 

 Hateful Grasshopper is at all likely to infest Kan- 

 sas and Nebraska after the season of 1867, unless 

 fresh swarms should descend upon those countries 

 from Colorado; but that it will, if not artificially 

 checked, terribly infest those countries in the sum- 

 mer of 1867, I have but little doubt. In the words 

 of the prophet, as already quoted — "The land will 



be as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind 

 them a desolate wilderness." 



Under these circumstances, and as no plan for 

 destroying the eggs can be effectual, unless it is 

 generally adopted, I should strongly recommend 

 the authorities, in Kansas and Nebraska, to offer a 

 bounty of so much a bushel for grasshopper eggs, 

 on the same principle that bounties are offered in 

 most new States for wolf scalps. This plan has 

 been often tried in European countries, and found 

 to work well. Women and children, who would 

 otherwise be earning nothing, engage in the work; 

 and after all, though it might perhaps cost the 

 State a few hundred thousand dollars, yet the mo- 

 ney does not go out of the State, and the crops of 

 next year will be saved. It is better to feed poor 

 people than to feed grasshoppers, and according to 

 the homely old adage "a stitch in time saves nine." 

 Without waiting for the Legislature to take action, 

 let the County Court of each infested County at 

 once offer a suitable bounty, and appoint men at 

 suitable points to receive and measure the eggs and 

 pay for them in County Orders. The eggs could 

 probably be utilized by feeding them out to hogs ; 

 but this could be easily ascertained by a few expe- 

 riments. If something of this kind is not done, 

 folks in Kansas and Nebraska had better lay in 

 supplies of provision for two years ahead, wherever 

 the grasshoppers have swarmed this autumn ; for 

 in all probability there will be a partial famine in 

 that countrv in 1867. 



I do not think that it is at all probable, that these 

 Colorado grasshoppers will ever cross the Mississip- 

 pi, as the Colorado Potato Bug has done, and pass 

 onward to the Eastern States. In the latter case 

 there were physical obstacles to the eastward spread 

 of the insect, previously to the settlement of the 

 Rocky Mountain Region. But, in the case of the 

 Colorado grasshoppers, there was no such obstacle; 

 and as they not hitherto spread eastward, there is 

 no reason to believe that they will do so hereafter. 



B. D. w'. 



The Striped Cucumber-bug. 



On p. 110 of Vol. I, of the Practical ExVto- 

 MOLOGIST, I stated that the Editor of the Western 

 Kurnl had "apparently" confounded the " 12-spot- 

 ted Flower Beetle" with the true " Striped Cucum- 

 ber-bug." In his issue of Sept. 12, 186G he shows 

 that he has not, and I have no doubt that he is 

 right. Hence it results that the Striped Bug does 

 really infest German Asters, which 1 was not pre- 

 viously aware of. As to Dahlias, it is not stated to 

 attack: them ; and it was to Dahlias that my obser- 

 vations more particularly applied. B. D. Vf. 



jaS^The sign ( "J, ) is used in Natural History as an ab- 

 breviation for the word "male;" the sign (9) for "fe- 

 male." In Astronomy the former sign denotes the Planet 

 Mars,and the latter the Planet Venus. The sign ( 9 ) occurs 

 profusely in old Egyptian monuments in company with 

 other "hieroglyphics," as they are called, or the sacred 

 language of the ancient Egyptians, and has been known 

 for centuries by the name of "crux ansata," or "the cross 

 with a handle to it." 



