GRASSHOPPERS IN GENERAL. 11 



NATIVE GRASSHOPPERS IN KANSAS. 



The native grasshopper lias made himself felt in Kansas, and is lia- 

 ble to do so again unless he becomes the subject of intelligent attack. 

 In a trip for observation, Professor Osborne, in 1891, reported these 

 grasshoppers as causing considerable damage to crops along the Ar- 

 kansas valley, in the western part of this state. Since that time larger 

 areas of cultivated ground have furnished more food and the possi- 

 bility of a greater production of resident locusts. This matter was 

 brought directly to the notice of the writer, by letters received in Au- 

 gust and September, 1897, from Supt. Geo. W. Watson, of the land 

 department of the Alfalfa, Irrigation and Land Company, Kinsley, 

 Kan. These letters were referred to us by Mr. F. D. Coburn, secretary 

 state board of agriculture. From the nature of this correspondence, 

 it was thought advisable to visit that locality, to obtain, in detail, ex- 

 isting conditions. Upon returning, a report was issued, by Professor 

 Snow and myself, an extract from which I herewith give, to show the 

 state of affairs : 



On the morning of the 30th, Mr. R. E. Edwards, president of the Kinsley 

 Bank, took us to a large tract of alfalfa southwest of Kinsley. There are about 

 400 acres of alfalfa in this piece, all the property of Mr. Edwards. Here we 

 found a few of the Rocky Mountain Locust,* but many more of what is known as 

 the Differential Locust, or Melanoplus different! alls. The farmers speak 

 of them as "those big yellow fellows." Mr. Edwards stated that the grasshop- 

 pers had not been so injurious in that tract as farther west. Yet wherever the 

 alfalfa was young and tender from recent sowing nothing appeared above ground 

 but stubble. Where the plants were older and tougher, the damage was not so 

 noticeable. In the afternoon and the next forenoon we visited a number of alfalfa 

 fields, and found conditions much the same as upon the first day. 



In the afternoon of the 30th, Hon. A. C. Dyer, county attorney for Edwards 

 county, took us to a locality west of Kinsley where the damage had been great. 

 Here the small Rocky Mountain Locustt was more abundant, with a goodly number 

 of the Two-striped, Melanoplus btvitattut, but, as before, the Differential Lo- 

 cust was by far the more abundant. Adjacent to one piece of alfalfa there had 

 been a piece of corn which they entered after the alfalfa had been cut and com- 

 pletely stripped it, killing it before tassels had appeared. 



It was not, however, for the purpose of observing the amount of damage done 

 that the visit was made so much as to note existing conditions. These will be 

 discussed farther on under the head of "Alfalfa and the Grasshoppers." Here we 

 will say that everywhere we were glad to observe that of the Differential Locust 

 (M. differentialia} there were apparently as many dead as alive to be seen. Nat- 

 ural enemies were at work, but too late to be of any assistance in preserving this 

 year's crop, though certainly of benefit in curtailing the number of eggs which 



*This was in accordance with a determination made for us. Specimens after- 

 ward sent by request to Mr. W. D. Hunter, Nebraska State University, were cor- 

 rectly determined as the Lesser Migratory Locust, Melanoplus atlanis. 



t These were afterward determined by Dr. Hough as Sarcophaga cimbicis 

 Town. 



