204 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 
flake, save that it passed by instead of falling. The number 
was beyond imagination: the air was literally full of them, 
and continued so till late in the afternoon ; countless millions 
passed on, leaving other countless millions covering the earth 
and devouring the vegetation. Another writer from Kansas 
states that—‘ Yesterday, September 10th, the locusts made 
their appearance here, and are devouring everything green. 
They almost darken the sun in-their flight. I putin sixty-five 
acres of wheat in the last week of August, which looked fine, 
but it has nearly all disappeared; by to-morrow night there 
will not be a spear left. Early-sown wheat will be totally 
destroyed.’.. From the description given by another writer in 
Kansas, we may quote the following graphic account:— 
‘There is something weird and unearthly in their appearance, 
as in vast hosts they scale walls, housetops, and fences, 
clambering over each other with a creaking, clashing noise. 
Sometimes they march in even, regular lines, like hosts of 
pigmy cavalry, but generally they rush over the ground in 
confused swarms. At times they rise high in the air, and 
circle round like gnats in the sunshine. At such times | 
think they are caught by currents of our prevailing 
westerly winds, and are thus distributed over vast tracts of 
country. The foregoing extracts will give our readers some 
litle idea of the mode of appearance and the destructive 
powers of the locusts in the west. We might fill pages,—a 
volume, indeed, with similar accounts.” 
The following year, and again in 1868, they appeared to 
be much less destructive in Central Iowa and North Western 
Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, and Utah, but did not 
cross the Mother of Waters, as the great Mississippi has been 
called. Whether this great river formed a natural barrier to 
their advance, or whether the eastern limit has been attained, 
it is impossible to say; but it is certain that hitherto the 
eastern states have escaped this mighty scourge. 
In Mr. Riley’s “ Seventh Annual Report on Noxious and 
other Insects Inhabiting the State of Missouri,” published 
during the present year, still further details are given, accom- 
panied by maps, showing the exact limits of the devastation. 
I cannot aflord more space to that part of the subject, but 
will conclude with a summary of the food-plants, which shows 
that it is almost omnivorous :— 
