AND ITS RELATION TO ANIMAL LIFE 



well established fact that locusts exercise great 

 discrimination with regard to the foods they 

 eat. 



It is a fact that locusts eat some plants with 

 more avidity than others ; it also appears there 

 are plants the leaves of which they will not 

 eat. For instance, I am told they will not 

 eat the leaves of chicory plants or sweet 

 potatoes, sometimes peas and other plants, 

 and always have a greater preference for some 

 plants than others. 



On one farm near East London it was 

 noticed on one occasion where barley, sweet 

 potatoes and pineapple plants were growing 

 close together (the potato vines were amongst 

 the pine plants) that the locusts ate the leaves 

 of the pine plants but did not touch the barley 

 or potato vines. On another occasion, where 

 the locusts had devoured all the crops growing 

 on many square miles of country, one farmer 

 in the devastated district had a few rows of 

 peas untouched, and I have been told of many 

 other instances where the locusts had devoured 

 one form of plant life, but not another which 

 was growing close or intermixed with the one 

 devoured. 



