p.^oKAiu. I THE LOCUST ON THE PACIFC COAST? 639 



of this S])ecies : "So far as lean loarn, it has not yet beeu fomul in 

 California ; but as it is found immediately east of the Sierra Nevada, it 

 is quite probable that it reaches to the Pacific, though it may not be 

 migratory on the west side of the range." Previous to this, in his Acri- 

 didse of North America, (Hayden's Survey, 1873, p. ICo), he remarked, 

 " I have traced this species from Texas northward to the north shore of 

 Lake Winnipeg, in British America, and from the Mississippi liiver 

 westward to the Sierra Nevada range. It does not appear to be found 

 in California, and but a short distance southward in Arizona. I am 

 half-way inclined to the opinion that future investigations will show 

 that this is really the de^^tructive species in California, and not CEdipoda 

 atrox, for it would seem impossible for the latter to sustain itself during 

 a lengthened flight with its short wings." 



Mr. Scudder thus writes me regarding the occurrence of C. spretus in 

 California : " On looking over my cabinet I find two or three si)eci- 

 mens, probably received from Mr. Edwards, with printed label 'Califor- 

 nia and Nevada,' which I should be very unwilling to separate from 

 spretusJ' 



In the autumn of 1875 I received from Mr. Edwards two specimens, 

 labeled C. spretitfi, from California; one was a male, the other a female. 

 The male I compared with a living male spretus, var. atlanis, caught at 

 Amherst, and found no diflerences in size or length of wing, except that 

 the wings were more clearly spotted and the body lighter colored. I 

 then considered it as C. spretus, and pnblished a note to that effect in the 

 American Naturalist for October, 1875, vol. ix, p. 573. 



On sending the two specimens to Mr. Scudder for identification, he 

 writes me that the female " is apparently femur-rubrum and the othei 

 probably hilituralis Walker, though it is pretty hard to be sure of Walk- 

 er's species. I have both of these from Vancouver's Island (Crotch)." 



On a fresh comparison of Mr. Edwards's male, which he and I refer to 

 spretus, I found it to be of the same size and length of wing as Mas- 

 sachusetts atlanis, but on comparing it with C. spretus from Northern 

 Missouri, it does not seem to me to difier, except in being considerably 

 smaller and in having shorter wings ; in coloration and style of mark- 

 ings, particularly the general pale-reddish and dull-yellowish tints, and 

 especially the distinct spots on the wings, it is a true sprettis. Some 

 observers may call it variety atlanis, I shonld j)refer to regard it as a 

 small subvariety of spretus, and regard atlanis as confined to the East- 

 ern States. However, as far as our present knowledge goes, I should 

 conclude that spretus occurs west of the Sierra Nevada as well as east, 

 but have not extended its range on the map beyond Utah and Idaho, 

 except conjecturally. It is to be hoped that collectors in California will 

 settle all doubts as to the range of this species in the Pacific States, 

 and collect it in such numbers that satisfactory comparisons may be in- 

 stituted between the Pacific coast form and the genuine spretus and the 

 form atlanis. Meanwhile, Mr. Henry Edwards, so well known for his 

 extensive entomological researches in Oregon, California, and Nevada, 

 sends me the following notes under date of September 10, 1870 : " Now 

 as to C'uloptehus spretus, I first found this species in large numbers 

 about 20 miles north of San Francisco, in Marion County, in May, 1875. 

 Previous to that time, though known to me by a few scattered individ- 

 uals, it had never appeared in great abundance, but at the above date it 

 was in immense quantities in the locality indicated, though it appeared 

 to prefer the dried-up grass to the green and growing corn and other 

 cereals which were close at hand. I have heard of no serious complaints 

 whatever of the destructive qualities of this insect, and am inclined to 



