﻿OF THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 121 



From meteorological data obtained at Lawrence, Kansas, and 

 furnished by Prof. F. H. Snow, and from reports from many other parts 

 of the country, it is evident that the high temperature of January and 

 February was general throughout the country between the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Mississippi, reaching its acme on the 18th of the lat- 

 ter month. Dr. Engelmann found the first maple in bloom, in St, Louis^ 

 on the 19th of February, and has no notes of such early blooming in 

 the past forty years during which he has recorded observations. 



PROSPECTS FOR 1877. 



A large number of the readers of this Report would feel sadly 

 disappointed were I to conclude this review of our last locust inva- 

 sion without expressing an opinion as to the future prospects. To give 

 an opinion as to the happenings of the future is somewhat hazardous 

 where there are so many possible contingencies that are altogether 

 beyond man's ken ; yet one who is careful in his expressions and state- 

 ments need never hesitate to advance them. With a reputation at 

 stake, I have not hesitated to do so in the past, and wherever I have 

 felt warranted in making a positive prediction, or in giving an unquali- 

 fied opinion, subsequent events have justified the same. I will, there- 

 fore, give my views of the prospects for the year 1877, as they appear 

 from the condition of things at this writing (March 10th); premising 

 only that, in forecasting future events in connection with this insect, 

 I would rather err on the bright than the gloomy side. 



The area over which eggs have been laid is, as we have have 

 already seen, unusually large. It was quite generally noticed that the 

 females were less particular than is their wont in choosing clear and 

 sunny spots for purposes of oviposition, and, after careful consideration 

 of the subject, I should say that, at the lowest estimate, two out of every 

 one hundred acres throughout the area indicated by the heavier lines 

 in my map (Fig. 16) are thickly supplied with eggs, and by this I mean 

 mean that the eggs will average 3,000 to the square foot. In other words, 

 throughout this whole country the southern slopes, sandy, gravelly, 

 and other bare spots, roads, paths, etc., in which the females prefer to 

 lay ; compare, on an average, as 2 to 100 with the northern slopes, tim- 

 ber, rank prairie, moist and recently cultivatedlands, which are gener- 

 ally avoided. At these low estimates there would, under favorable cir- 

 cumstances, enough young locusts hatch out to devour everything 

 green, not only in the area stated, but over the whole United States, 

 were they evenly disseminated throughout the country. We have 

 already seen that the bulk of the eggs yet remain sound, and, notwith- 

 standing such as have been destroyed by natural enemies and all other 



