﻿OP THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 151 



some specimens. Are they Caloptenus spretus? I presume they are, without doubt. 

 Yet I notice that many of them have the winof covers much less than J longer than the 

 abdomen ; but I believe all males have the little notch in the ventral segment. Will 

 they probably remain here and deposit their eggs, or may we expect to see them move 

 off? I have not seen any pairing yet.— [Wm. AVheeler, Ottawa, Franklin county, Kan- 

 sas, Aug. 24, 1874. 



As there prevails a belief that Kansas will suffer permanently 

 from locust devastations; and as many people are deterred from 

 migrating thither from fear of these insects, the following answer to 

 an inquiry which I published in the New York Tribune^ last October, 

 may serve to measurably allay this fear. 



Does the science of Entomology oflfei- a solution to the Grasshopper question, that scourge of the 

 trans-Missouri ? I have made my arrangements to settle in Kansas or at some ))oiut in the ' ' Fur West ' ' 

 for the purpose of making a home, but do not relish the idea of being menaced by famiue.— [Z. F. Hop- 

 kins, Jackson Co., 111. 



Just now the people of Kansas are, in many sections of that unfortunate State, 

 greatly discouraged, and there is quite an exodus from her extensive and fertile plains, 

 especially of the more recent settlers. Nor is the outlook encouraging, for the locusts 

 very generally fell upon whatever in the way of food and forage had braved an unu- 

 sual drouth. Yet much unnecessary alarm is manifested, and the desolation has been 

 greatly magnified. The authorities have fully canvassed the position and find no need 

 to ask assistance from sister States, and we may rest assured that while many of her 

 farmers must suffer deprivation the coming Winter there will be nothing heard of the 

 predicted famine. We should not forget that eight years ago Kansas suffered from 

 such a locust invasion, yet the eight intervening years between the invasion of 1S66 and 

 that of the present year have been among the most propitious in her historJ^ 



The story of the Locust {Caloptenus sp7-etus) is a long one, but without going into 

 details, I can see no good reason why any one should hesitate to settle in Kansas on 

 account of these insects. If I had any intention of settling in tliat State, I should 

 choose this time of all others to do so : first, because so many of her citizens have become 

 alarmed and are willing to sell fine homesteads at a great sacrifice ; secondly, because, 

 from the past history of these invasions, her people may reasonably expect exemption 

 from them for a period of eight, ten, twelve or more years. Two invasions are not 

 likely to succed each other within two years in the same territory, and this is so well 

 landerstood among the Mormons, who are apt to suffer from such devastating hosts, 

 that they are in the habit of laying in a two years' supply of provisions — never fear- 

 ing that there will be any need of a three years' supply. The people in Montana, 

 Idaho and Nevada, expect to suffer from them about once in every seven years. The 

 same argument, also, which would deter people from settling in Kansas would deter 

 them from settling in the western part of Iowa, in Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, Minne- 

 sota, in short, in any of the country 500 to 550 miles east of the Rocky Mountains, 

 from British America to Mexico; for all this vast extent of country is more or 

 less subject to locust invasions. There are, indeed, few parts of the countrj^ not sub- 

 ject to periodic misfortune, cither from meteorological or entomological excesses. 



Nebraska. — Next to Kansas, this State suffered most, having been 

 entirely overrun, as the following extract from a letter from Gov. R. 

 W. Furnas will show : " The whole of our State, from a point, say thirty 

 miles from the Missouri river west, has been more or less affected by 

 ' grasshoppers.' The extreme western portion of the State was entirely 

 devastated." They came in legions from the north and northwest, and 

 the following extracts from correspondence will sufficiently indicate 

 the time of appearance, which was during the last of July : 



This region was visited by these grasshoppers on Julj'^ 21st, and after a sojourn of 

 ten days they departed, and with them went our corn crop for 1874. For ten long days 

 the pests fed and fattened on our immense corn crops, and the last three or four days 

 of their stay they deposited tlieir eggs by the million all over the plowed ground and 



