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ground of the Rajputana locust are the sand-hills of Raj 

 putana, Sind, the Punjab, Jeypore and Ajmere. The chief 

 home of the Deccan locust are the Western Ghauts. They 

 are also found to breed in Konkan and the adjoining parts of 

 the Deccan. From these two centres both varieties of locusts 

 migrate to all parts of India and sometimes they come to 

 Bengal also. The A. Succintum prefers the invasion of 

 moister tracts, while the A. Peregrinum chooses harsher 

 climates. Besides these two migratory locusts there are 

 others, and there are also some varieties of stationery locusts 

 in Bengal and other provinces of India. These also do some 

 little amount of damage. 



1,221. The female lays eggs in sand after making a hole 

 in the sand about an inch deep with the hinder part of the 

 abdomen. After she has laid the eggs she pours some frothy 

 liquid on the top of the hole, which serves both to adhere 

 the eggs together and also to make a covering for the hole. 

 This takes place in March in the Punjab, and in June in Raj- 

 putana, t'.e. t after the first early showers of rain. Eggs are 

 laid in some tracts later on in the rainy season. Each lump, 

 if it is dug out of the ground, will be found to consist of 50 

 to 100 eggs. They remain for about 3 weeks in the ground 

 after which little green insects creep out of them. In a few 

 hours the green integument is thrown off and each insect now 

 appears as a little black wingless grasshopper. It hops about, 

 lives on green plants, increases in size, moults several times, 

 gradually develops four wings, and in about a month becomes 

 a full grown locust, ready to fly in shoals of millions over 

 whole provinces, alighting now and then to eat up fields of 

 growing crops, very often resting at night on trees and shrubs 

 and then with sun-rise starting off again and passing over new 

 tracts, alighting again as before as they feel hungry. Not 

 finding any suitable ground for laying eggs they generally 

 die off, but in the sandy deserts of Sind, the Punjab and Raj- 

 putana, they alight and lay eggs undisturbed in the sand at 



