THE AMEEICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



95 



of the Grasshoppers, and the balance in due 

 time took flight and left ns. With the excep- 

 tion of those two years, Colorado has not been 

 generally nor severely scourged by that pest. 

 They have done damage in certain restricted lo- 

 calities, and have passed over in greater or less 

 swarms almost every year since the settlement 

 of the country, but the prevalent idea that they 

 are a yearly plague is all a mistake. 



In New Mexico, which has been settled by 

 the same people for two hundred years, genera- 

 tion after generation of the same family, culti- 

 vating the same tields, they say they expect to 

 lose about one crop in seven by Grasshoppers. 

 The experience of the people in Utah, Montana, 

 Idaho and Nevada, is about the same as ours. I 

 tliink you are right in the supposition that they 

 will not propagate in great numbers in the Mis- 

 sissippi valley— not because it is too hot or too 

 low, but because it is too damp. 



Now, why is it that Colorado has been given 

 the unenviable distinction of supplying names 

 'to two of the pests of agriculture— the " Colo- 

 orado Potato Bug " and the "Colorado Grass- 

 hopper?" Neither is peculiar to Colorado. The 

 Potato Bug is hardly known here, aird has never 

 done any damage worth mentioning. Both 

 were well known before Colorado was named, 

 and yet both have been renamed after Colorado. 

 "Why are things thusly? 



Respectfully, your ob't serv't, 



Wji. N. BvEiis. 



Denver, Col., Dec, 6, 18G8. 



Editors American i^ntomolofjiit : 



In the last number of your excellent journal 

 appears an article under the title '' The Hateful 

 or Colorado Grasshopper." Now permit me to 

 object most seriously in behalf of this Ten-itory 

 against attaching the odium of the nativity of 

 this pest to this country, when Utah, Montana, 

 Oregon, Nevada and New Mexico, all have them 

 equally numerous with Colorado. The Colo- 

 rado Potato Bug is enough; we want no more 

 fame of that kind. The llocky Mountain Grass- 

 hopper is the llocky Mountain Grasshopper. 

 Now, having pen in haud, I feel impelled to 

 write a few thoughts, which are the result of 

 my knowledge of this llocky Mountain Grass- 

 hopper. Though I may differ in opinion from 

 the article referred to, I do so for the sake of 

 truth and the public good. The Grasshoppers 

 are distinguished here as the Spring and Fall 

 Grasshopper. Thoge of the Spi'iug are those 

 that hatch out here, make wings, and fly oft' 

 generallv about the last of June or first of 



July, never remaining to lay eggs. The Fall 

 Grasshopper flies here from the west in Septem- 

 ber, and sometimes in August. They rest, feed, 

 and sail oft" if the wind suits their course for it; 

 and, as is well known, they fly with the wind, 

 and more generally w^hen it is in an easterly di- 

 rection. A sudden cliangc in the wind will 

 cause them to fall to the ground in myriads, 

 when if it rights itself, soon they immediately 

 rise and fly oft' again. They come in swarms 

 varying from a half mile to many miles in ex- 

 tent. Those that come here late pair oft', and in 

 two weeks after begin to deposit their eggs, 

 which is generally from the flftcenth to the last 

 of September. The eggs hatch in a week of 

 suitable warmth and moisture. After a fall of 

 snow, succeeded by ten days of warm weather, 

 young Grasshoppers may be seen here on liill- 

 sides and warm places in the fall. This is the 

 history and nature of the Grasshopper as exhib- 

 ited here. That they can live in a warm dim ite 

 and become adapted to it, is proven in New 

 Mexico, where they did much damage this year, 

 as well as in California. But the question may 

 be asked why have they not propagated them- 

 selves in Iowa and Missouri? The reason is 

 obvious, they came there too early and deposit- 

 ed their eggs too soon. The eggs having been 

 laid so early, the hatching process began in the 

 fall, the eggs were chilled and debilitated by 

 frost, and when spring's warmth completed the 

 work, there came forth a brood of sickly, dying 

 Grasshoppers, incapable of propagating them- 

 selves. Now, should we have a late cold spring 

 in the Rocky Mountain region, retarding the 

 hatching of the Grasshoppers that they may 

 reach Iowa and Missouri October loth, and de- 

 posit their eggs after that time, there will be such 

 a swarm of Grasshoppers in those States as was 

 never before seen, but will be seen often 

 thereafter. V. Devinny. 



Denver, tol Tn-., ls:;s 



[There are hundreds of insects that take their 

 name from some particular district where they 

 were first discovered, though they are equally 

 common in many other districts. The Pennsyl- 

 vania Soldier-beetle, for example, takes its name 

 from Pennsylvania, yet is just as common in 

 all the other northern States. (See American 

 Entomologist, p. .52. note). Again, the New 

 York "Weevil takes its name from the State of 

 New York, where it was first met with. Yet in 

 that State it is exceedingly scarce, while in the 

 valley of the Upper Mississippi it is very com- 

 mon and very destructive to fruit trees. If we 

 are to change the name of (he Colorado Potato- 



