NA TURE 



309 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1872 



ENTOMOLOGY IN AMERICA 

 First Annual Report of the United States' Entotnological 

 Commission. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 

 1878.) 



WE have received the first annual report of the 

 United States Entomological Commission for the 

 year 1877, "relating to the Rocky Mountain locust, and 

 the best means of preventing its injuries and of giiarding 

 against its invasions." The title-page bears the heading, 

 " Department of the Interior, United States Geological 

 Survey, F. V. Hayden, U.S. Geologist in charge ;" but 

 the report is by C. V. Riley, A. S. Packard, Jun., and 

 Cyrus Thomas, and it simply \i2isses, pro formd, through 

 Dr. Hayden's hands to the Secretary of the Interior, 

 The amoimt of entomological work previously done by 

 the Survey is well known. ^ Before speaking of this 

 report it may be well to refer to the circumstances which 

 have led to its being made. Diuing the years 1873-76 

 the injury done by the Rocky Moimtain locust in states 

 west of the Mississippi was so great as to create a feeling 

 that steps should be taken by Congress towards mitigating 

 the evil. A conference of the governors of various 

 western states and territories was held at Omaha (Ne- 

 braska) in October, 1876, the result of which was a 

 memorial to Congress for an appropriation of 25,000 dols. 

 and the creation of a commission of five experts to 

 thoroughly investigate the subject. Congress acceded 

 partially to this and an act \\-as passed " appropriating 

 18,000 dols. to pay the expenses of three skilled entomo- 

 logists to be attached to Dr. F. V. Hayden's United 

 States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Terri- 

 tories," and the Secretary of the Interior appointed the 

 gentlemen above-named. As soon as the commissioners 

 were appointed they met at Washington and agreed upon 

 the division of labour. Their scheme was laid before 

 the Minister of the Interior on March 22, 1877, was 

 approved, and was immediately put in operation. Within 

 eleven months from that date the report was prepared 

 and ready for presentation. When it is considered how 

 vast was the district to be examined, how numerous were 

 the records of the movements of locusts during the year 

 that were collected, and what a range of subjects the 

 report includes, it seems astonishing that so much should 

 have been accomplished in the time. The locust-area 

 was divided into three districts for convenience, Mr, 

 C. V. Riley took the region east of the Rocky Mountains 

 and south of the 40° N., the western half of Iowa, and 

 conjointly with Mr. Packard, British America west of 94' 

 W. Mr. A, S. Packard took Western Wyoming, Mon- 

 tana, Utah, Idaho, and the Pacific coast Mr. Cyrus 

 Thomas took the portion north of Mr. Riley's region, 

 including the eastern half of Wyoming, Northern Colo- 

 rado, the southern and eastern part of Dakota, Nebraska, 

 the eastern half of Iowa and Minnesota. Circulars ask- 

 ing for information were distributed among farmers and 

 others, and every assistance seems to have been offered 

 by the officials of the different states, of the Post Office, 

 and of the railways. On the subject of the movements 



^ See especially ^th, 5th, 6th, asd 9th reports. 



Vol. XIX.— No. 484 



of locusts as many as 2,500 observations were thus 

 obtained for the year. 



The report is divided into nineteen chapters, and the 

 scope of the work will be most conveniently indicated by 

 giving a brief resume of each. 



Chapter I. is devoted to classification and nomenclature. 

 It is pointed out that the words "locust" and "grass- 

 hopper '■' are often very loosely used, including diverse in- 

 sects belonging even to different orders. The limitation 

 of the use of the word " locust" in the report is explained 

 at p. 33. "This family [speaking of the Acrididce] con- 

 tains the true locusts, such as those of Oriental countries 

 and the Rocky Mountain locust ; also such so-called grass- 

 hoppers as the common red-legged species of the States 

 and those found hopping on the ground in open waste 

 fields, along roadsides, &c. Therefore, in speaking here- 

 after of these species, we shall use the term l0i,ust'* So 

 that, insects belonging to the family Locustidce, are not 

 here included imder the general term locust. The family 

 Acrididce is divided into three sub-families, the Prosco* 

 pines, the Acridince, and the Tattigince. The first is an 

 exotic family, and dismissed from further consideration. 

 The TattigincB are comparatively few, quite small, and 

 seldom noticed by unscientific observers. It is, there- 

 fore, only with the Acridince, which includes all the 

 migratory locusts, that the classification deals. This 

 sub-family contains several subordinate groups ; but of 

 these the writers remark, " no arrangement we have seen 

 can be considered satisfactory," Reasons are given for 

 excluding from consideration all genera except Acridium 

 and Caloptenus. Acridium is limited in its permanent 

 region to districts south of the latitude of St. Louis. 

 Caloptenus has a wider region, and causes far greater 

 losses by its ravages. After discussing Stal' s Calliptenus 

 the writers describe Caloptenus as they understand it 

 (p. 40). There are twenty-nine species recognised in the 

 United States, but of these there are but three which, 

 for the pvuposes of the work, have to be considered, " as 

 they are the only ones generally distributed, which are 

 so closely allied to each other as to render it difficult to 

 distinguish them." These are the C. spretus, Thomas, 

 C. atlanis, Riley, C. femur-rubrum, De G. Three plates 

 are devoted to illustrating the details of their appear- 

 ance in different stages of growth. Throughout the 

 report they are spoken of by their popular names : 

 atlanis is called the lesser locust ; femur-rubrum, 

 the common red-legged locust; and from among the 

 many names for spretus, such as "the hopper," "the 

 army grasshopper," "hateful grasshopper,' "Rocky 

 Mountain locust," &c., the commission have adopted the 

 last. It is with this Rocky Mountain locust and its de- 

 predations the report is mainly concerned, though the 

 damages by others are not excluded. 



Chapter II. (pp. 53 to 114) gives a chronological history 

 of the ravages in past years, beginning with the imperfect 

 records of as far back as 181 8, and this is summarised in 

 a taiaular form (p. 113). With regard to this history it is 

 pointed out that while the later years are recorded as years 

 of wide-spread emigrations, it must be remembered that 

 our means of obtaining statistics have improved. "There 

 are no facts tending to show that the locusts themselves 

 have been any more niunerous of late years than previous 

 to, for example, the years 1866-1867." 



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