﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 57 



THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCV ST— Calopie7ius spretus Thomas. 

 (Ord. Orthoptera; Fam. Acrididj^.) 



Serious and distressing as were the ravages of this insect in 1874, 

 when the winged swarms overswept several of the Western States, 

 and poured into our western counties in the Fall, the injury and suf- 

 fering that ensued were as naught, in Missouri, compared to what 

 resulted from the unfledged myriads that hatched out in the Spring 

 of 1875. As nothing in the way of insect ravages had before equaled 

 it in the history of the State, and as the history of this calamity, so 

 fraught with valuable experience and instruction, will form an im- 

 portant record for future reference, if condensed and brought together 

 in an accessible work, I shall devote a large part of the present Re- 

 port to this insect plague — supplementing the article published in the 

 Report for 1874, by the experience and observation of 1875. It was 

 almost universally admitted by our farmers that, grave as was the 

 affliction, they could have overcome it without great difiiculty, if they 

 had had, at the beginning, the experience they had gained by the end 

 of the visitation ; and it is my hope that in the event of another such 

 occurrence, the experience here recorded may be made available. 



PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE IN THE SPRING OF 1867. 



During my travels in the middle western counties of Pettis, John- 

 son, Lafayette, Jackson and Cass, in which the injury was perhaps the 

 greatest, few things struck me as more remarkable than the little that 

 was remembered by the inhabitants of the previous visitation in the 

 Spring of 1867. Occasionally I would meet with a man who recol- 

 lected quite distinctly the doings of the young locusts in that year, 

 and such an one profited to great advantage by that experience ; but 

 what with new comers since 1867, and want of records, the large pro- 

 portion whom I met with knew little about it. Another important 

 reason why the farmers were ill prepared for the desolation of last 

 Spring is found in the fact that the previous injury of 1867, from one 

 cause and another, was by no means as widespread and severe — the 

 insects did not so generally hatch in such immense numbers ; they 

 were more generally attacked by enemies, especially black birds, 

 and the people were in much better material condition to withstand 

 them, and sustain the temporary injury. It will be interesting here 

 to reproduce what was published in my last Report as to the injury 

 that might be expected in the Spring of 1875. The predications were 

 based not only on the, general habits and ways of the young insects, 

 but on the experience of 1867, as far as it could be learned : 



