PACKAnn.] ENEMIES AND PARASITES OF THE LOCUST. Go7 



state, are at first rosy, then emigrate southward, and rcLuiu iu winter 

 of their mature color. 



Iu S])aiti, during the suniincns of 1875 and 1876, Deciicus alhifrons 

 (Fabr.) was abundant and injurious, but less so in 1870 than the year pre- 

 vious, as the soldiers assisted the inhabitants of the district infested in 

 destroying them. 



In China records exist of the appearance of locusts in devastating 

 numbers one hundred and seventy-three times during a period of nine- 

 teen hundred and twenty four years, as stated by Andreozzi,* who has 

 translated, from a Chinese work on agriculture, notes respecting the 

 ravages of locusts in China, and the superstitions existing among the 

 Chinese with regard to their origin. The three great causes of famine 

 in China are placed as flood, drought, and locusts. 



In Southern Australia locusts of an unknown species committed rav- 

 ages in 1872. (See Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Lou- 

 don, 1872, pp. xii-xvii). 



EXTERNAL ENE:MIES AND PARASITES OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST. 



When any insect abounds to an unusual extent, it has been tound that 

 not only its peculiar parasites abound in a corresponding ratio, but par- 

 asitic insects which prey usually on various other insects leave their 

 ordinary hosts and attack the new-comers. Among the most impor- 

 tant agencies which diminish the numbers of locusts, especially in the 

 Mississippi and Missouri Valleys, are the insect-parasites. The birds 

 destroy many, but the natural insect-enemies still more. The black- 

 birds, quail, prairie-cbickeus, and grouse were said to destroy many of 

 the eggs iu Minnesota. As samples of the accounts given by different 

 writers, I give the following bj' Uriah Bruner, contributed to the "Inter- 

 Ocean:" 



Quails, paririe-cliickeiis, nnd grouse, if snfficieutly miiuerous, alone are snflficient to 

 pick np every embryo grasshopper loug before he can have wiugs. This I kuow from 

 actual observation. 



Seven years ago large areas of eggs were deposited on my farm near Ouiaha. I then 

 was fortunate enough to have about Hfty quails on my place. As soon as the hoppers 

 were hatched, and while yet almost microscopic in size, I venture to say that each one 

 of the quails picked up, every day, enough of them to fill a bushel-measure if grown 

 to full size. They devoured all my grasshoppers loug before their wiugs had devel- 

 oped; but the grasshojipers devoured no one's crops that year, and very few escaped 

 to migrate. It seeuis, however, that that spring the young grasshoppers were de- 

 stroyed everywhere where their eggs were deposited among us, aud most persons will 

 tell you that the cold spring rains killed them off. This is possible, where the raius 

 were heavy enough to carry them off and drown them. But at that time quails, prai- 

 rie-chickens, and grouse were plenty everywhere, and I suspect that rain-storms got 

 credit for what the birds did. 



Within the last six years we have had sporting-clubs in all our cities, towns, and vil- 

 lages, aud very few birds survive the skill of the sportsman. Should any be fortunate 

 enough to escape the sportsman, farmers' boys will trap and snare what are left during 

 the winter aud send them off to market. Was it not last winter that the report came 

 back from Chicago, Saint Louis, New York, and other largo cities that the market 

 W.1S glutted with quails, prairie-chickens, and grouse ? 



If my position is correct, is there any wouder that the grasshoppers that hatched in 

 Missouri, Kansas, and Minnesota last spring have done so much damage before aud 

 after their migration ? The wouder is that they did not more damage. If God in 

 his mercy had not sent deluging rains throughout Missouri and Kansas, that swept 

 most of them down the waters of the Missouri, and if in Minnesota herculean efforts 

 had uot been put forth to destroy them iu tlieir pupa state, the great Northwest might 

 not to-day rejoice in the great harvest that is now ready to take in. 



There can be no excuse for us to be eaten out by the grasshoppers, when hatched 

 out among the settled parts of our country ; and if we don't destroy them in their 



* An extract from this translation is given by Stefanelli intheBulletinoEntomologia 

 Societil Italiauo, IdTO, pp. 70-8-'.— (Zool. Record for 1870), 



4i3GS 



