INSECTS AND PLANTS 41 



but is less destructive, being less widely distributed and 

 occurring in smaller swarms. It is a coastal locust, and 

 is, for the most part, confined to the warm humid districts 

 at or near sea level, whilst its winter quarters are in Natal 

 and Zululand. About the beginning of December each 

 female deposits an egg-packet containing, approximately, 

 ninety-five eggs, and then dies, but the males survive a little 

 longer. In their choice of site for egg-laying these locusts 

 are much more particular than the brown species, a newly 

 formed sugar plantation being a favoured spot, and, as 

 showing the enormous numbers of even these less numerous 

 locusts, there exists an authentic record of twenty tons of 

 eggs having been dug from ground of less than one hun- 

 dred acres in extent. Sometimes these insects do not ovi- 

 posit till after the rains have come, and then the hoppers 

 appear in two or three weeks; another eight weeks sees 

 them mature, winged, and returning to winter quarters. 



One reason why locusts have, in the past, been such a 

 power in the land in South Africa is because of the diffi- 

 culty of eradicating them, a matter rendered doubly hard 

 because the "old Boer was indolent enough to accept a 

 locust plague as a punishment for his sins, and resorted to 

 prayers and days of fasting, like our half-civilised ancestors 

 of the middle ages, in the hopes of seeing a miracle wipe 

 them out." 



Now all this is changed; the Government have estab- 

 lished a central bureau, from which and to which reports 

 are constantly travelling. A well-organised postal system 

 keeps the officials in touch with all the latest events in the 

 locust world of the colony ; the result is, that flights can 

 often be predicted, and farmers, in the districts likely to be 

 favoured with a visit, warned beforehand. This, however, 

 is but a small portion of the work of the bureau, though, 

 perhaps, the most interesting. 



Needless to add, South Africa is not alone in suffering 

 loss from locusts ; in other parts of Africa, Asia, Australia, 



