i6 



THE INSECT RECORD FOR I QOO 



edy is to cut and burn the infested stems in spring before the 

 first of June. On the infested stems the leaves are more 

 backward in unfolding than on healthy ones. 



The weather during this season, as well as during those 

 immediately preceding, has been unusually favorable to the 

 development of Locusts or Grasshoppers, which in several 

 sections of the state, especially in river valleys, have done con- 

 siderable damage. In the vicinity of West Concord they were 

 so abundant that they were collected for the bounty of one dol- 

 lar a bushel, authorized by the state law. The species most 

 abundant at West Concord, as determined by collections made 

 July 23, 1900, was the Atlanis Locust.^ 



A noticeable feature of the unusual 

 abundance of grasshoppers was the 

 prevalence of a fungus disease that 

 destroyed many of them. The dis- 

 eased ones seen were chiefly of one 

 species, the common Carolina Locust,^ 

 which was very plentiful during the 

 summer. This insect is especially 

 common along roadsides, and in open 

 pastures and other grasslands. It is 

 the one that most commonly flies up 

 as one walks along a country road. At 

 such times it flies rapidly in a zigzag 

 manner for a rod or two before alight- 



ing. 



The disease is caused by a parasitic 

 plant that invades the tissues of the 

 grasshopper, growing inside its body 

 in such a way as to replace the inter- 

 nal organs. The insects thus affected 

 seem impelled to climb up as high in 

 the world as they can get and so they 

 are found on the bark of trees, the sides 

 of buildings, the stems of weeds and 



YiQ_ 6. Carolina Locust gi'^sses and in other similar situations. 



killed by Fungus Disease. Sometimes they will reach a position 



'^Melanoplus atlanis Riley. 

 ^Dissosteira Carolina Linne. 



