

. II. ] [ No. 4. 



INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES. 



THE LOCUSTS OF BENGAL, MADRAS, ASSAM, AND BOMBAY. 



[ With one plate. ] 



A report has recently been issued on the subject of Acridium pere- 

 grinum, which is par excellence the locust of North- West em India. In 

 gathering together the materials upon which this report was based, in- 

 formation was obtained concerning" other locusts which have from time 

 to time proved destructive in Bengal, Madras, Assam, and Bombay. The 

 present report, therefore, is intended to record what has been ascertained 

 about these other locusts. To complete the subject, a short resume has 

 been added of what is known of the chief locusts that are found in other 

 parts of the world. 



The principal sources of information have been the reports and speci- 

 mens furnished by the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the 

 Government of India and by the Agricultural Sections of the various 

 Local Governments in India, but reference has also been made to the 

 more important papers published in the United States, Algeria, and 

 Europe, on the subject of locusts. 



A short preliminary sketch of a portion of this paper was submitted 

 in November 1889, since which date a good deal of fresh information 

 has accumulated. rf 



The writer takes this opportunity to acknowledge the help which has 

 been most kindly afforded by Dr. Henri de Saussure in identifying 

 species. 



Locusts in Bengal. 

 In Bengal, it is chiefly in the comparatively dry country to the west 

 that locusts appear, though occasionally flights traverse the whole of 

 Bengal and even penetrate into Assam. These flights are composed of 

 insects belonging to very different species, and there are at least three 

 distinct sources from which they come. In the first place, flights of 

 Acridium peregrimm occasionally penetrate from the North- West frontier 

 into Bengal. This was the case both in 1863 and 1890. An account of 

 what is known of these flights is given in the report on Acridium 

 peregrinum. Secondly, flights occasionally penetrate into Bengal from 



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