110 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. II. 



of Lieutenant Colonel Bradford, the locust of Rajputaua, which is un- 

 doubtedly Acridium peregrinum, is spoken of as distinct from the Bombay 

 locust of 1882-83. Acridium peregrinum has been shown to be essentially 

 the inhabitant of sandy deserts, while the Bombay locust of 1882-83 

 originated in the topical forests of the Western Ghats. The habits also 

 of the Bombay locust of 18S2-83 differed materially from those of 

 Acridium peregrinum, in that the young: wingless larvse of Acridium pere- 

 grinum can be readily driven into traps, while those of the Bombay 

 species entirely declined to be destroyed in this manner. Again, specimens 

 said to be <( locusts " were sent from the Bombay Presidency in 1883 to 

 the well known entomologist Ml*. F. Moore, who identified them as be- 

 longing to no less than five species, namely : — Acridium succinctum, 

 Caloptenus erubescens, Caloptenus <caliginosns, Cyriacant fiacres ranacea, and 

 Oxyafurcifera ; Acridium peregrinum being unrepresented, a circumstance 

 which is not likely to have occurred if this had been the species which 

 was at that time swarming over the Presidency. Again, at a meeting o^ 

 the Entomological Society of London, held on the 4th of April 1883, Mr' 

 W. F. Kirby, of the British Museum, exhibited specimens of a locust 

 which he identified as Acridium succinctum and which he had received 

 from Mr. T. Davidson, who stated that it was 1 he species which had 

 lately been destructive in the Deccan and other parts of India. In the 

 absence, therefore, of actual specimens, which do not seem to have been 

 preserved, it may be concluded as most probable that while numerous 

 species of AcrididaB may have been present in great numbers in the 

 Bombay Presidency in 1882-83, the insect chiefly responsible for the in- 

 jury to the crops was Acridium succinctum, which, therefore, would be 

 the one spoken of by most of the observers, who, from their reports, seem 

 to have noticed but one kind of insect. 



Locusts in other parts of the world. 



Many species of Orthoptera occasionally increase vastly in numbers, 

 so as to cause serious injury to agricultural crops; 

 and there are, in different parts of the world, cer- 

 tain species, which are known distinctively as Locusts, and which possess 

 this habit to a remarkable degree, often migrating in swarms which 

 devour the crops over wide areas of country. Migratory locusts usually 

 breed permanently in tracts where the vegetation is sparse. In years 

 when they increase excessively, they descend in flights from their per- 

 manent breeding-grounds, upon cultivated districts, where they destroy 

 the crops, lay their eggs, and maintain themselves for a limited period, 

 but are unable to establish themselves permanently, usually disappearing 

 in the year following the invasion, to be succeeded, after an interval of 

 years, by fresh swarms from the permanent breeding-ground. 



