124 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. VIII. 
In July, 1890, locusts were noticed in the Ganjam collectorate, the following 
being the Collector’s report to the Revenue Board, Madras, on the subject :— 
“1 have the honour to inform you that on the 24th instant I visited Purushottapur in 
order to see whether anything could be done to destroy the locusts reported to be doing 
s0 much mischief there. 
“ T had two large ‘bag nets’ made of bamboo matting, 15 feet long, and hoped that 
I might have been able to do something with them ; but am sorry to say that all 
attempts ended in failure. I also attempted to drive the insects into trenches, but 
without success. The reason for the failure is, that the insects, which are of four or 
five different kinds, succeed in evading the net or the drive, the large ones by flying 
away when approached, the smaller ones by dropping to the ground and clinging 
there, so that nothing would remove them which would not at the same time root out 
altogether the crop. The number of large brown insects which seem to be really 
locusts is comparatively small, the great bulk are small brown and green grass-hoppers, 
which are in myriads. A great deal of damage has undoubtedly been done. The pest 
extends over about 10 square miles, chiefly in the Pubbakhandam mutah of the Berham- 
pore taluk, Of one hundred and four villages (including Agraharams and Mokhasas) 
in the mutah, fifty-five are more or less affected and ten have suffered seriously. 
“ All the villages most affected are near the Dalibhillo Tampara, the embankment of 
which breached in the floods of last year and has not yet been repaired, in consequence 
of which a large expanse of ground, usually under water, has been lying dry. The 
ryots report that the insects first made their appearance in the vicinity of the Tam- 
para, and 1 think it probable that they were brought out in unusual quantities owing 
to the unusual extent of dry ground there. Steps are being taken now to repair the 
embankment, and I trust that next year the Tampara will not afford so convenient a 
breeding ground, and that the insects will either not re-appear or do so in diminished 
numbers.” 
Specimens were forwarded to the Indian Museum and were found to con- 
sist of (1) ten adults and eight larve of Pachytylus cinerascens*, (2) four 
1 These specimens were identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure ; the species is so closely allied 
to Pachytylus migratorius, which is the common migratory locust of Central Europe, that it 
is very doubtful as to whether the two forms are separable. Koppen indeed (vide Zool 
Record, 1872, page 398) considers that P. cinerascens is only a variety of P. migratorius, and 
the specimens of the two forms in the Indian Museum (as determined by Henri de Saus- 
sure) seem to point to this being the case. According to the synopsis given on page 119 of 
Dr. Saussure’s Prodromus Gidipodiorum, in P. cinerascens the male is smaller than the female, 
the punctation on the pronotum is somewhat coarse, the notch in the carina is well marked, 
and the teeth on the posterior femora are large ; while in P. migratorius the male is much 
the same size as the female, and the punctation on the pronotum, the notch on the carina, and 
the teeth on the posterior femora are less marked. To these characteristics Mons. Frey 
Gessner adds that the carina on the thorax of P. cinerascens is elevated into a well-marked 
ridge, while that of P. migratorius is much less distinct. These characteristics, however, seem 
in the absence of any well-marked geographical boundary between the areas in which the 
two forms occur, to be of scarcely sufficient importance to justify their separation into two 
species, this being especially the case, as Dr. Saussure writes, that the females of the two 
forms are often almost indistinguishable. 
