UflLER ON INSECTS. 359 



one side. Contiiming, it next ate into the mass of green seeds, chewing 

 a\yay with great rapidity; in one minute, it had consumed nearly a 

 square inch, and when I returned to the spot in fifteen minutes, the 

 grasshopper was still clinging to a fragment of the calyx, but every ves- 

 tige of the flower had disappeared. This species did not occur in count- 

 less myriads as others of the grasshoppers ; only a few were seen on a 

 spot ; at a distance of a few feet there were others, and so, over a sur- 

 face of an acre, only a few hundreds were to be found. 



Not so with the Caloptenus spretus^ although in this neighborhood but 

 a few stragglers were to be seen. In the mountains, however, south of 

 Denver, such multitudes were flying that walking or riding was ren- 

 dered almost unendurable by the continued thumps which one received 

 upon the face. Buried in grasshoppers would have been almost liter- 

 ally true of my condition ou the morning of August 16, when I walked 

 from Colorado City to the mountains at Manitou. When I arrived in 

 Denver, on August 4, sporadic exami)les of this insect were to be seen 

 on the commons in the city and on the plains adjoining. The next day, 

 and for several days afterward, no crowds had appeared in the near vi- 

 cinity of this place. No swarms were flying over the lower section of 

 the Clear Creek CaBon and gulches during August 6, 7, or 8. In the 

 latter, single individuals would come flying down upon the mountain- 

 sides from the higher levels, in company with, or at the same time as, 

 other species, but never in multitudes. Nor were the nymphs of this 

 species to be found in that locality. Of other kinds, chiefly (Edipodas^ 

 many young ones were hopping about in the paths and roads and in the 

 woods among the rocks. Some of these were but slightly advanced in 

 their larval stage, and were quite small. Others were almost ready to 

 begin their final moult. The grass and Indian corn near Golden was 

 still untouched, and the unusual amount of moisture had helped the 

 crops to put on their healthiest covering of green. 



After passing to the west of Paeblo, on the morning of August 10, I 

 began to hear of the depredations of this grasshopper. As the train 

 passed the corn-fields in the valley of the Arkansas, now and then a 

 large field would be observed to have been stripped of its leaves, and 

 in man}' cases the top would be bent over and broken. Often the stalk 

 with a part of the tassel attached would be seen lying on the ground, 

 where it had fallen after having been gnawed through, or snapped off 

 by the numbers which had alighted on it. But the insects were not 

 there ; they had evidently flown off to other places. After arriving at 

 Canon City, and for the next two days, swarms of these insects were 

 occasionally seen flying from the direction of the mountains. None of 

 them, however, took the trouble to settle near the mountains; all went 

 over, far aloft, and alighted five or more miles east of the city. In the 

 mouth of the caQon of the Arkansas, there was much for them to eat, 

 but only a few could be seen in places where the grass and weeds were 

 dense and hifrh. 



