LOCUSTS OF BENGAL, MADRAS, ASSAM, & BOMBAY. 19% 
sionally to arise locally?. This is probably what happened in 1881, when a 
flight invaded the Manbhum District from hills in Hazaribagh. No informa- 
tion has yet been obtained on the subject of the identity of these local 
species ; they may, perhaps, in some cases have belonged to the species 
Acridium suecinetum. 
Whatever the origin of the flights, the injury done by them in Bengal has 
never been very extensive, and no special measures have been adopted against 
them. According to a report, dated 14th July, 1883, by Mr. W. H. Grimley, 
low-class Mahomedans and Hindoos are said to store the locust, both for food 
and also in order to extract an oil believed to be useful in the treatment of 
gout and rheumatism, but upon the whole the pest is of no very great im- 
portance. 
The following is an abstract of the records of the invasions of locusts 
other than Aeridiun peregrinum in Bengal :—- 
In 1862 locusts visited Monghyr and did considerable damage to the crops 
(Report, dated 26th June, 1890, by the Commissioner of Bhagulpore and the 
Santhal Parganas). We have no clue to the identity of this locust, except that 
in this, as in the following instances, the year was not one in which Acridium 
peregrinum was prevalent in its regular breeding grounds in North-Western 
India ; so it is pretty certain that the species was not Acridiwm peregrinum. 
In 1865 locusts passed over Manbhum, without, however, doing serious 
damage to the harvest (Hunter’s Gazetteer); they also appeared in this year in 
Durbhunga (Mr. W. H. Grimley’s Report, dated 14th July, 1883). 
In 1873 they are said to have passed over part of the Burdwan District 
(Commissioner of Burdwan’s Report, dated 28th April, 1890), In 1877 they 
visited Monghyr and did considerable damage to the crops (Commissioner of 
Bhagulpore and the Santhal Parganas’ Report, dated 26th June, 1890); a 
flight was also observed in this year in the neighbourhood of Patna (Mr. Scott’s 
Note), and a specimen obtained from it on 1st July, 1877, by Mr. Scott has 
recently been identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure as closely allied to the 
Species Acridium succinctum. In 1878 locusts, which had probably strayed 
from the flights then prevalent in the Madras Presidency, appeared in the 
Patkour subdivision of the Santhal Parganas from the south, but did not 
alight (Commissioner of Bhagulpore and the Santhal Parganas’ Report, dated 
25th June, 1890). They also appoared in small numbers in Orissa, but did no 
appreciable damage (Babu C. N. Ghose’s Report, dated 20th February, 1890), 
and passed over Chumparan (Mr, W. H. Grimley’s Report, dated 14th July, 
1883). In 1881 a flight of local origin appeared in Manbhum and did some 
2 With regard to the origin of locusts in the Durbhunga District, the Commissioner of 
Patna reported (16th July, 1890) that the swarms were said to come from the Darjeeling 
Hills, though some authorities were of opinion that they breed in the large tract of grass 
jungles that fringe the river Ganges, The supposed inability of these local species to cross 
any large body of wateris noticed in this report. 
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