﻿108 EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



Reports from the grasshopper districts Friday are more encouraging. They are 

 leaving as fast as they get wings, and parasites are malcing sad havoc in their ranks. 

 When a column of them take flight many are observed to fall to the ground unable to 

 fly. An examination invariably shows that they have been so enfeebled by maggots 

 that they are unable to get away and soon die, — [Jefferson City Tribune, June 9. 



There are a few people who yet refuse to believe that parasites are destroying 

 the locusts. Hundreds of the most intelligent and practical men in the State have 

 carefully studied this question, and all agree, so for as we have heard, that not one 

 locust in a thousand will live long enough to reach his native country in the north- 

 west. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of these pests are covered with parasites. 

 We recently examined a grasshopper with a powerful microscope, and counted twen- 

 ty-four parasites upon it. Upon nearly every hopper that can be found will be found 

 from two to a dozen of these parasites, ranging In size from a minute atom, hardly 

 visible to the naked eye, to the proportions of a pin-head. 



Experienced entomologists, and careful, observant, practical men of all classes, 

 have devoted great attention to the study of these parasites. And their investigations 

 ■conclusively prove that, so far as the grasshoppers visiting this region are concerned, 

 their race is run. They are dying by millions. Those that live to get back to their 

 native haunts cannot propagate their species. Nature, always faithful in adjusting its 

 balances, has provided an enemy capable of mastering the grasshopper, and this enemy 

 is the little red parasite that can be found either on his wings or his body. — [Atchison 

 (Kans.) Champion ; forepart of June. 



Thousands of grasshoppers fell to the ground in the Republican Valley and else- 

 where, while flying, and all seemed to be destroyed by parasites, eating into the body 

 at the base of the wings. Within the last few days I have examined many localities in 

 the vicinity of Lincoln, where the grasshoppers have appeared, and in five spots found 

 the ground covered with their dead bodies, which, on examination with the micros- 

 cope, were seen to be literally devoured by these minute parasites. 1 hear the same 

 thing reported from different parts of the State. — [Correspondence of the Lincoln 

 (Nebr.) Journal, about the middle of June. 



Mr. Al. Dunbar brought to our office this morning a handful of healthy looking 

 locusts, and requested us to inspect them. We did so, and pronounced them a fair 

 article. He then dissected them, one by one— by pulling them apart just below the 

 head — and in the upper part of the body of six out of eight locusts, a white worm 

 about one fourth of an inch long, was discovered. The balance might have been in- 

 fested also, but not having a microscope we could not tell. Other persons have dis- 

 covered these worms, and report that the locusts are dying rapidly. The worms are 

 hatched from an es^g deposited beneath the leg or wing by an insect similar to a com- 

 mon house-fly. — [Warrensburg (Mo ) News^ June 2. 



From this experience we may very justly conclude that a large 

 proportion of the insects which departed from the country invaded 

 in 1874, perished on their way toward the native habitat of the species, 

 and that those which did not so perish reached the Rocky Mountain 

 region of the northwest whence their parents had come the previous 

 year. They struggled back with thinned and weakened ranks, and it 

 will probably take many years ere they become so prodigiously multi- 

 plied again, and are enabled by favorable conditions to push so far 

 east as they did in the year 1874. They did some harm at their rest- 

 ing places on the way, but in a large number of instances, they rose 

 after their brief halts, without doing serious injury. Nor can I learn 

 of any instances where these swarms that left our territory deposited 

 «ggs. Had the winds been adverse to their northwestern course, 

 and obliged them to remain in the country where they hatched, I 

 believe that the bulk, if not all of them, would nevertheless have 

 perished before laying eggs. 



