592 EEPOET UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



plateau of the Eocky Mountains led Professor Hayden to urge me to 

 give special attention to these points, I shall dev^ote a good deal of 

 space to a description of tlie habits of this insect, whose ravages have 

 been and are still destined to be so calamitous. 



I will first give an account of my own observations in the Western 

 Territories, and then give a general account based on the facts observed 

 by different entomologists, and close with suggestions as to the remedies 

 to be employed and measures that should be taken by Government and 

 State and Territorial authorities to anticipate future invasions. I have 

 not attempted to give a full historical sketch of locust invasions in the 

 line of States lying directly west of the Mississippi River, beginning 

 with Minnesota and ending with Texas, forming the eastern limits of 

 the locust region, since this has already been done by Professor Riley 

 iu his seventh and eighth annual reports on the injurious insects of Mis- 

 souri, and the fiicts given by him and others are epitomized in the tab- 

 ular view of the locust migrations inserted near the end of the present 

 report. Mr. Allen Whitman, in his valuable " Report on the Rocky 

 Mountain Locust, for 1876," has given an account of the locust invasions 

 in that State, with valuable notes on the habits of the insect. From the 

 data he has there published I have been able to correct the tabular view 

 of locust invasions I had extracted from my report and published in ad- 

 vance in the American. Naturalist for January, 1877. In addition to 

 what is stated in his report for 1876, Mr. Whitman writes me, under 

 date of February 18, 1877: " I cannot find that there was any appear- 

 ance of locusts in Minnesota iu 1855. The only authority that 1 know 

 for it is the article by A. S. Taylor, iu the Smithsonian Report for 1858, 

 which mentions them as appearing on the reservations, or, at least, 

 among the Indians." 



THE LOCUST IN COLORADO. 



I first saw the effects of the ravages of this locust along the railroad 

 leading from Cau)eron, Mo., to Kansas City, June 24, 1875. It was 

 stated to me that the devastatiousof the grasshopper extended over an 

 area of 300 square miles, beginning at a point about 50 miles east of 

 Kearney and extending about 70 miles west of Kansas City. At this 

 date the locusts had left the country two weeks previous, but a 

 few feeble stragglers being left, with red mite under the wings. The 

 corn and wheat fields were bare ; now and then scattered, half-eaten 

 corn-stalks indicated the former presence of a flourishing field ; rarely 

 had a field been left untouched. It was evident that the swarms were 

 local in their attacks. As regards the devastations of the locust iu 

 Missouri iu 1875, the reader is referred to Prof. C. V. Riley's " Eighth 

 Report on the Noxious, Beneficial, and other Insects of the State of 

 Missouri," 1876, where ample details are given. 



At Lawrence, Kans., the town and surrounding country had been 

 swept by vast swarms, leaving scarcely a green thing, except in one 

 portion of the town which had been left untouched. Until June 25 the 

 air had been filled with 'locusts flying at a great height, but after that 

 date they were not seen, and but a few stragglers were observed, hop- 

 ping feebly about the roadside. The marks of their jaws were apparent 

 on the fences and on the bark of apple and peach trees, in which rings 

 had been gnawed. The grounds about one house had been protected 

 by tarred boards nailed to the fence, and by ditches within the inclo- 

 sure which were emptied as fast as they were filled, at least 70 bushels 

 having been taken out. An attempt was made to save valuable fir-trees 

 by covering them with blankets, the edges of which were kept down by 



