No- 1. ] Miscellaneous Kot.es. 45 



locusts which are the results of the first imposition are larger than those of the 

 second, and tho>e of the second oviposition are larger than those of the third. The 

 above details as to the period of the existence and ovirosition of locusts refer to those 

 which are classified in Southern Persia under the name Mesri (Egyptian). 



Tehee an ; 7 (Sd.) Waltee Towstley." 



Ihe 19th December 1881. ) 



The following notes on the locusts which have proved destructive in 



.„,,.,, ,. Turkish Arabia are of interest, as Acridium 



Locusts in Turkish Arabia. . ' 



peregrmum (the migratory locust of North- 

 Western India) seems to be the insect which is chiefly complained of. 



According to a report by C. C. Metaxas, published in the Bevue des 

 Sciences NaturelU Ajjliquees, 87, No. 12, June 1890, pages 581 to 

 590, reviewed in Insect Life, Volume III, page 172. Jcridium 

 peregrimtm did much damage in the province of Mesopotamia in 

 Turkish Arabia between the years 18b4 and 1889, fresh swarms con- 

 stantly invading the province in April from the south-east [i.e., South- 

 ern Persia or Baluchistan). The early part of the winter of I88c v -S9 

 was an unusually mild one. The eggs hatched in January and the 

 young locusts were killed by frosts in February, and it is supposed 

 that the same conditions prevailed further eastwards, as there were no 

 fresh invading swarms in the spring of 1889. A tax of 25 kilograms 

 ego* of capsules, to be delivered each winter, was imposed by the Turkish 

 Government on each person in the cities, and for every plow in the 

 country there was a similar tax of 50 kilograms. The result of these 

 measures was that a large number of eggs were collected, and this, in 

 conjunction with the frost in February, the failure of the spring rains 

 which are considered essential to the hatching of the eggs, and the 

 absence of fresh invading swarms from the south-east, resulted for the 

 time in the cessation of the locust plague. 



According to a report furnished through the Government of India 

 from the British Residency in Baghdad, this locality is subject to 

 invasion from two distinct species of locusts, the one coming from the 

 district of Kerkook on the north, and the other from the direction of the 

 Arabian deserts to the south. The following 1 extracts from the Resi- 

 dency diaries are valuable as showing the nature and extent of the 

 invasions : — 



" 19th March 1886. — The Local Government is making strenuous exertions against 

 the locusts whose eggs the sunouuding country is supposed to be full of. Yesterday 

 both His Excellency the Wali and His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, encamped 

 outside the town to superintend the work of searching for eggs by detachments of 

 soldiers. The young locusts are taken out of the ground in numbers : and in their 

 present stage are small black wriggling creatures, something like spiders. 



