Vol. in. 1 r No. % 



THE LOCUST INVASION OF 1889— 92. 



In the early part of 1891 a report was issued on the subject of the 

 c , migratory locust Acridtum peregrinum Oliv. 



which has recently invaded India. This re- 

 port gave a summary of the information obtained up to the beginning of 

 December 1890. The notes since collected on the subject of the inva- 

 sion of Northern Africa, Persia and Turkish Arabia by the same insect, 

 appeared in Vol. Ill, No. 1, of these Notes , where details are also given 

 of what has been ascertained on the subject of: the parasites and natural 

 enemies which attack it in India. In the present report it is proposed 

 to give a short sketch of the general features of the invasion in India, 

 together with such fresh information as has been obtained on the subject 

 of the habits of the insect and the methods adopted for dealing with it. 

 The locusts were first noticed in June 1889, when flights were reported 

 The history of the invasion in from Sind and Western Rajputana. These 

 India - flights no doubt originated in the sand-hills 



of the desert, where the insect is said to breed each year in larger or 

 smaller numbers. They began laying their eggs as usual in June, when 

 the rains of the south-west monsoon broke. During the remainder of 

 the rainy season of 1889 the flights gradually spread throughout Eastern 

 Rajputana, the Punjab, and Sind, egg-laying going on at intervals in 

 various parts of Rajputana and the Punjab. The young locusts which 

 were born from the ea-0-s laid in the beginning: of the rains, acquired 

 wings towards the latter part or August. In the beginning of the cold 

 weather, owing- to the extensive breeding which had taken place, the 

 locusts seem to have become very numerous in Rajputana and the 

 Punjab, and in November and December flights from these areas found 

 their way throughout the North* West Provinces and Central India, and 

 penetrated even as far as the Vizagapatam, Kistnaand Godavari Districts 

 in the Madras Presidency. They were also reported from British 

 Baluchistan. During January and Febiuary 1890 stray flights were 

 reported from various parts of India, but the cold seems to have told 

 upon them, and they were not very active. As the hot weather of 1890 

 approached, however, and the soil, moistened by the winter rain, began 

 to grow warm, the locusts again became active and commenced egg- 

 laying. Eggs were layed throughout the north-western districts of 

 the Punjab in March ; also in the Shikarpur District of Sind in April. 

 By June the young locusts hatched from these eggs had acquired wings, 

 and the flights spread in all directions, They penetrated throughout the 



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