PACKARD] THE DESTRUCTIVE LOCUST OF CALIFORNIA. 689 



tating nature of its ravages, may be called GLdipoda atrox, or the terri- 

 ble grasshopper. To the best of my knowledge, it is the only species of 

 the genus which has anywhere proved seriously and persistently injuri- 

 ous to crops. Several species of the closely-allied genus Pachi/hjlus 

 have ravaged the fields of Eastern Europe and Asia; and it is interest- 

 ing, in a zoological point of view, to find that California, whose insect 

 fauna bears a much more general resemblance to the peculiar types of 

 the Old World than to those characteristic of the opposite border of the 

 ]New World, should in this case also harbor a devastating grasshopper so 

 much more nearly allied to the destructive species of the Mediterranean 

 than to those found upon the same continent with itself. 



Whether the Q^dipoda peUucida (atrox) or Caloptenus spretush the spe- 

 cies which has proved at times so destructive on the Pacific coast has 

 been a matter of some uucertainty. Mr. Scudder (Hayden's Report on 

 the Geology of Nebraska, 1872) believes that it is this species, while Mr. 

 Thomas (Monograph of Acrldidcv) thinks it must be C. spretus. As seeu 

 in the previous account of C. spretus in California by Mr. Henry Edwards 

 (p. ), he regards that locust as the destructive species. Concerning 

 the habits of Q^. pellucida in California, he writes me the following ex- 

 plicit account : '"'• (Edipoda [Cammila) atrox. This species is very abun- 

 dant in the spring and early summer, but at present (1876) appears to be 

 somewhat limited in its range as far as California is concerned. It is 

 found only in our foot-hills, and has not, to my knowledge at least, been 

 regarded as a very destructive insect. I never saw it but once in very 

 large swarms, and it then appeared to attach itself more to the pasture- 

 grasses than to any growing crops, although there were plenty of fields 

 of barley, oats, «&c., in the neighborhood. It appears in its larval con- 

 dition in April, and in the winged state in May, passing entirely out 

 of existence by the middle of June. I have taken it sparingly in Ne- 

 vada and in Vancouver's Island, and have seen some specimens from 

 Santa Rosa Island, but I am pref^y sure that it cannot be called a 

 common insect in those localities." Regarding its habits and distribu- 

 tion in the East I quote as follows from Scudders Distribution of Insects 

 in New Hampshire (Hitchcock's Geology of New Hampshire, vol. 1): 

 "Tbis insect is silent in flight, and is a northern species, swarming in 

 immense numbers among the White Mountains and on the dry summits 

 of the country south of it. The top of Mount Prospect, near Plymouth, 

 was covered with myriads of them in the autumn of 1873/ It is found, 

 however, as far south as Connecticut and Southern Illinois, and west to 

 the latter region and Lake Superior." Thomas states that he has found 

 it in Montana. — (Acridida3 of North America, p. 137.) 



Concerning this species. Professor Thomas remarks as follows in Hay- 

 den's Annual Report on the Geology of Montana for 1871, p. 458: 

 "Those who live in the East and have not seen a specimen of this spe- 

 cies, can see it almost, if not exactly, represented in (E. peUiicida of 

 Scudder ; in fact, Mr. Scudder's description of this species agrees more 

 exactly, if possible, with specimens from California, submitted to me 

 this season, than his description of atrox.^'' In his "Synopsis of the 

 Acrididae of North America," Hayden's Survey, 1873, he again says : 

 " I give this species as distinct from (E. peUucida on the authority of 

 Dr. Scudder, but I consider the two as identical, the only difference 

 that I can see being that the median carina of atrox is severed, while 

 that of pclhicida is continuous. The coloration shows less ditt'erence 

 than is often observed between different specimens of the same species 

 from the same locality. In fact, my specimens of atrox agree more 

 41 G s 



