PACKAUD] THE LOCUST IN COLORADO AND KANSAS. 503 



soil, but still the locusts crept under. Peach-trees were defoliated, the 

 fiuit devoured, and the stones lelt attached to the stems, while the 

 branches were girdled. As the hal)its of the }>irasshopj)er were studied 

 at Lawrence by Prof. F. H. Snow, of the University of Kansas, and 

 published in the Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science for 

 1875, I condense his statements as the results of the observations of an 

 ar.complished entomologist living farther west than any other trained 

 observer. Professor Snow tirsst observed the recently-hatched hx-ust on 

 the Cth of April. "They were very diminutive in size, and when dis- 

 turbed by my walking among them, would hop only two or three inches 

 high, looking very much like the grains ol sand in rapid motion upon a 

 vil)rating acoustic plate." About the 10th of May the young locusts 

 began to desert their hatching-grounds, which, it should be boine iu 

 mind, is where the locusts which had arrived from the Rocky Mountain 

 j)lateau during the previous summer laid their eggs, the latter being 

 the parents of the brood observed by Professor Snow. As these locusts 

 increased in size they s[)read arouiul, aud it was at this time, namely, 

 before the wings are formed, that they were most injurious. In tifty- 

 tive days after hatching, the locust acquires its wings and takes Hight. 

 They were lirst seen to rise and take tiight, for their final departure, ou 

 June 3. By the 12th of June, just two weeks from the time of their 

 last molt, very few remained iu the pupa (or partially-winged) condi- 

 tion. The destruction in 1875 was confined to a narrow stri|) on the 

 eastern border of Kausas, along both sides of the Kansas Pacific Eail- 

 road. 



Between Lawrence and Topeka the damage was much less than about 

 Lawrence, and west of Topeka I could not see that the crops had been 

 affected. At Fort Eiley very few locusts were seen along the railroad- 

 track. Peaching Denver June 26, a few locusts, the remains of the spring- 

 swarms, were seen hopping over the ground. At Denver, 5,211 feet 

 elevation, the young hatch from March 15 until May 15 ; there is an early 

 and a late brood. A farmer told us that he saw the young on the snow 

 March 20, and again after another fall of snow March 28. A month 

 later, about the middle of April, a second brood, and about the middle of 

 May a third brood appears. 



At Boulder the injury from grasshoppers had been light; the grass- 

 hoppers appeared in greatest numbers about the 1st of May, stripping 

 some cornfields, and destroying about half the crop, and then went up 

 the Boulder Caiiou, May 15. They were still not infrequently seen ou 

 the i)lains. 



June 30, at Nederland up the Boulder Cafion, I first saw the locusts 

 flying iu the air, toward the west, the wind blowing from the east. 

 Their pupae were very abundant ou grass, logs, etc. 1 was told that 

 they had become fledged on the 25th-27th, and immediately began to fly 

 westward up the cauon. At Caribou (9,167 feet elevation), the grass- 

 li'>ppers had destroyed the first crop. Around the base of Arapahoe 

 Peak, between 11,000 and 12,000 feet elevation, adult winged locusts 

 were seen, but no young. 



.July 2, in riding from Nederland toBlackhawk, the air was filled with 

 grasshojjpers at an altitude of several hundred feet, sailing on the wind 

 and driven eastward. The stage-driver told me that they had been 

 flying five days. The potato-pUints were at this i)oint 5 inches high. 

 At Biackhawk, (7,543 feet elevation), the pu[)ai of the locust was abun- 

 dant, as well as winged individuals. 



At Golden, at base of the Foot Hills (5,729 feet elevation), July 3, the 

 locust had been fledged lor five days, and the pupte weie still abundant 

 38 GS 



