MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION. 239 



received a few letters notifying us that these beetles had been in- 

 jurious to garden phints and other plants of value. This species and 

 various other of the same family {Melodidae) are well known to be 

 very beneficial in the larval stage as destroyers of the eggs of lo- 

 custs. In brief their life history is the following: In the latter part 

 of the summer they deposit their yellowish colored eggs in the 

 ground, each female producing four or five hundred eggs. The eggs 

 hatch in about ten days into long-legged larvae. These larvae are 

 very active and they run about over the ground search- 

 ing for eggs of locusts, finding an egg pod they enter 

 it and begin devouring the eggs. It is said that if two 

 larvae come upon the same egg-pod a deadly combat oc- 

 curs, resulting in the death of one or the other, leaving 

 the successful contestant sole owner of the store of food. As the 

 larva feeds and grows it molts from time to time producing remark- 

 able changes, until in- place of the long-legged larva there is one 

 with short legs and rudiamentary mouth parts. The mature beetle 

 appears again the next spring. 



Besides the enemies we have mentioned, which are among the 

 most important, are many others .which, taken together, doubtless 

 do much to reduce the number of grasshoppers. 



REMEDIES. 



The remedies that have been devised in the various parts of the 

 country are not adapted to the conditions we find on the grasshop- 

 per-ridden ranges of Montana. They apply much better to the agri- 

 cultural fields of the middle west states, but some of them may be 

 used effectively in the agricultural valleys of this state. We give 

 below a few remarks regarding the most important remedies that 

 are known, leaving the farmer to select for himself the one most 

 suitable for his conditions. 



Ploughing. — Late fall or early spring ploughing is the best of all 

 artificial remedies. It is practiced for the purpose of destroying the 

 eggs and it follows that the eggs must first be located. In our re- 

 marks regarding the habits of grasshoppers we have called atten- 

 tion to the fact that in the breeding season the grasshoppers accumvi- 

 late in more or less restricted areas and that the eggs are laid in 



