﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 67 



noxious insects, including the native locusts and the Chinch Bug, was everywhere 

 noticed and commented upon. The incovning of the Avinged insects in the Fall was 

 anticipated and feared, as soon as it was known that they were overruning Nebraska 

 and Western Iowa. Feeling the importance of obtaining exact data as to the territory 

 invaded in our own State, and in which eggs were laid, in order to indicate just where 

 injury may be expected, or not, next Spring ; 1 have taken pains to examine, or get 

 reports from, all the western counties. These reports, in condensed form, are herewith 

 submitted ; and, summarized, they show that the middle western counties, which suf- 

 fered most in 1875, (i. e., the portion of the State in which the winged insects reached 

 farthest ea'st in 1874, and laid most eggs) were not overrun in 1876, and will not suffer 

 next Spring. Such are the counties of Platte, Clay, Jackson, Lafayette, Cass, John- 

 son, Bates, Henrjr, Pettis and Benton. In these counties the farmers have little or 

 nothing to fear, except as they may receive a few straggling and comparatively harm- 

 less bevies of the winged locusts next June and Juij-, from the neighboring country. 

 The counties that were overrun and that will suffer are : 1st, Atchison and Holt, and 

 the western half of Nodaway and Andrew, in the extreme northwest corner. 2d, Mc- 

 Donald, Barry, Jasper, Lawrence, Barton, Dade, Newton, Cedar, Vernon, more par- 

 ticularly in the southwest half; Polk in the northwest third ; Hickory in the south- 

 west third ; St. Clair in scattering places, and Christian and Greene in the extreme 

 border. 



The locusts came into all these counti.es last Fall, very generally ate off the Fall 

 wheat, and filled the ground with their eggs, in most parts quite thickly. As else- 

 where, they continued laying till overtaken by frost. 



Bates, according to one correspondent, also received a few of the insects in the 

 western half; while a few stragglers are also reported in Harrison, and even in Gentry, 

 Henry and Cass ; but it is evident that in these cases they were not in sufficient num- 

 bers to do harm or to cause any forebodings for the Spring. They came into the N. W. 

 corner from the N. and N. W., early in September* and were to some extent jirevented 

 from reaching beyond the points indicated, by south winds. 



They entered the S. W. counties from the S. W". nearly a month later, invading 

 Newton and McDonald by September 23, and reaching the middle of Barry by the 

 first of October, and Cedar by the middle of this month. It is quite clear that the 

 eastern limit of the swarms which came from the N. and N. W. was receding west- 

 ward after they reached N. W. Missouri, and that S. W. Missouri, S. E. Kansas and N. 

 W. Arkansas would have escaped had it not been for W. and S. W. winds that brought 

 back insects which had reached south of these points. 



The dates of arrival of the insects are nearly a month later than in 1874, and in 

 this respect the 1S76 invasion more nearly resembles that of 186G. It was also less 

 immediately disastrous than that of 1874, and most crops were either garnered or 

 beyond injury, and the principal damage was to the Fall wheat, which, as already 

 stated, was eaten down, and in most cases effectually destroyed, at a time, too, when it 

 was generally too late to do anything more than let the ground lie over to plant in 

 corn in Spring. 



Various correspondents note that all the holes made by the female were found to 

 contain no eggs when examined, and they argue therefrom that few or no eggs have 

 been laid. From what I said two years ago (Rep. 7, p. 123), and from the philosophy of 

 the process of egg-laying (given further on), it follows that such reasoning is fallacious. 



♦According to Sign.il Service Reports some were seen iu Xodaway county much earlier. 



