38 Indian Museum Notes. [ Vol, JJJ f 



open to immense destruction. As much as 6C0 inaunds of them were collected and 

 buried in one day, and every day the destruction amounted to hundreds of maunds* 

 nearly all the undetained citizens laboured, for one rupee was given for each maund 

 weighed. The troops also, and the boys of the large High School, were eno-ao-ed in 

 destroying them. Their collection was very simple, as they could be shaken off the trees 

 by thousands into sheets held below. Four men could collect a maund. in very little 

 time. There were three weighing stations established, and the District Funds were 

 freely drawn upon. Some 40 paid labourers were entertained for special destruction 

 in difficult places, but the paid labourer, unless watched the whole day long-, contents 

 himself with simply driving the insects about instead of killing them with his flail. 

 On the energy of Mr. Casson, the Assistant Commissioner, seconded by Tahsildar 

 Abdul Quyum, the success of the operations depended. Both the.-e officers worked 

 with a will. Mr. Casson spent several days in trying to save the municipal garden by 

 himself setting an example in manual labour. Owing to his energy and the tahsildars' 

 "the destruction was very wholesale. After ten days the majority of the hoppers 

 moulted their skins, and after waiting to get strength of wing, by degrees the whole of 

 them left the station, where in any case there was no food left for them. 



" As to the time locusts lay their eggs there is great room for conjecture. At the 

 present moment (or at any rate to within the last few days) in the western portion of the 

 district the Acrid ium peregrinum was obtainable in every phase of development from 

 the eg^s to the fully-Hedged insect. The process of egg.hatching has therefore 

 continued from the beginning of April to the beginning of June in a tract of country 

 where the difference of elevation only cajses a slight chai ge of climate. It may be 

 that the presence of hills accounts for this discrejancy, eggs in hills either taking 

 longer to hatch or being laid later. A Financial Commissioner's circular of j884 savs 

 that July is the ovipositing month of the Punjab locust, but I don't think this can be 

 the case. It is more likely, as Dr. Cotes states, that August, September, and October 

 are the months for the second layings. I do not think the recently dedged insects now 

 flying about will lay for some time. It should be curious to see when the next swarms 

 of larva? will appear in this district (for the ones now appearing must be late ones of 

 the April or spring bnod). If the larvse appear again during this autumn, it will be 

 clear that there are without doubt two laying seasons in this quarter. 



<J The enemies of locusts were birds, beetles, and dogs, and the locusts also preved 

 upon one another. Birds did them very little damage, only attacking them 

 occasionally. Pariah dogs devoured hoppers with relish. A black beetle, probably of 

 the kind Mr. Merk sent a specimen of to Calcutta, attacked tl em with avidity. These 

 beetles seem to be bred out of the fseces of the cattle, from which nest they appear iu 

 great numbers after the dropping is a day or two old. The large numbers of trans- 

 port animals which have recently passed through the district to the Miranzai Expedi- 

 tion have caused the origin of large quantities of these beetles, and they were the 

 locusts' most determined foe. When the hopper has just moulted his skin he is for 

 some hours a most helpless creature, and in this state is often made a prey of by active 

 hoppers still unfledged. Being no entomologist, I offer the remarks about the speci- 

 mens I send with diffidence, but any contribution of in formal ion is of value in connec- 

 tion with an insect of which the best informed know very little.'' 



In the spring and early summer of 1891 the whole of Northern 



Africa was invaded bv locusts of the species 

 Locusts in Northern Africa. , ., ~;. ri . . . , , ... 



Acndum peregrmum UIiv. 1 his locust (unlike 



the insect which proved injurious in Algeria in the years 1887-89) is the 



