[55] Report of the State Entomologist. 151 



kill with the vapor or drive away by the scent; destroying the 

 eggs in June and July by following up the winding burrows, 

 and digging up the nests. A method recommended by KoUar 

 and approved by Curtis, as probably the best where the insect 

 abounds, is to dig pits in the ground in the autumn, of a foot in dia- 

 meter and two or three feet deep, to be filled with horse-dung and 

 covered with earth. At the first frost, all the crickets will be 

 attracted to and congregate in these pits for warmth, where they 

 can be conveniently killed. 



Other Species. 



GryllotaljM longipennis Scudder, is a less common species, occasion- 

 ally found in New York and Massachusetts, and more frequently in 

 some of the Southern States. Dr. Thomas has recorded it from 

 Arkansas. 



Gryllotalpa Columbia Scudder, is cited by Prof. Fernald in his 

 "Orthoptera of New England," as differing only from G. borealis 

 in its larger size and comparatively greater breadth of wing-cover. Its 

 habitat is given as Massachusetts, Maryland, and Washington, D. C. 



The common mole-cricket of Europe is the Gryllotalpa vulgaris — 

 broadly disseminated and very destructive. Curtis' Farm Insects 

 may be consulted for its life-history and other interesting particulars 

 of it. 



Melanoplus femur-rubrum (De Geer). 



The Red-legged Grasshopper. 



(Ord. Obthoptera: Fam. AcRiniDiE.) 



Acridium femur-rubrum DeGeer: Memoires pour servir a I'histoire des 

 Insectes — Orthoptera, iii, 1773, p. 498, pi. xlii, flg. 5. 



The communication given below, received from Brentsville, Va., in 

 July, 1877, records an instance of unusual multiplication and to an 

 injurious extent, of one of our common Eastern locusts, Avhich is so 

 seldom the cause of notable harm to the agriculturist, that each 

 occurrence of the kind is deserving of record. A still more remark- 

 able instance of this occasional multiplication, is that of Melanoplus 

 atlanis (a species so closely allied to M. femur-rah'um that it has only 

 recently been separated from it by Professor Kiley) in the Merrimac 

 valley, Nev/ Etampshire, in the years 1882 and 1883, as recorded by 

 Professor laley in his annual rejjort to the Department of Agriculture 

 for the year 1883 (pp. 170-180, pi. 2) — the Department having been 

 appealed to for aid, if it might be given, in suj^pressing its ravages: 



I send you specimens of grasshoppers, which are very desti'uctive 

 in this immediate neighborhood the present season. The pests were 

 fix-st discovered about the tenth of May, on low meadow-land subject 



