Jjo. 4.] Locusts. 113 



of insect parasites (Tachinse, Ichneumonidse, &c), and weakened by 

 disease, and make their way more or less directly towards their perma- 

 nent breeding-grounds ; they perish by millions on the road, so that but 

 few ever reach their home, in the high and barren north-west, where 

 alone they are able to propagate permanently. They leave (it is reported) 

 a great part of the country sufficiently early to allow of corn of rapid 

 growth being produced after their departure, and succeeding swarms 

 avoid the parasite-stricken districts which their immediate predecessors 

 have deserted. Hogs, poultry, and all kinds of birds, besides various 

 insects, destroy vast numbers of the locusts; and as they can only exist 

 permanently in the comparatively barren north-west, it is supposed 

 that when this breeding -ground is irrigated and settled, the locusts will 

 gradually be exterminated. 



Caloptenus italicus occurs on the European side of the Mediterra- 

 nean (Italy, Austria, &c.) ; it is also found in North Africa and South 

 Russia (Verz. Zool. Bot. (ies. Wien. xviii, p. 930 ; Bull. Ent. Ital. 

 xiii, p. 210). It has been reported as destructive. 



Stauronotus cruciatus has proved injurious in Italy and Sicily (Bull. 

 Ent. Ital. xiii, p. 210). It also periodically invades Cyprus and the 

 Troad (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1881, pp. xiv & xxxviii ; also, Brown: — 

 Report on the Locust Campaign of 1885-86 in Cyprus). 



In Cyprus the locust is indigenous to the island. The young hatch 

 out about the middle of March, and take about six weeks to become 

 adult, when they acquire wings, take flight, and soon afterwards copulate 

 and oviposit. The eggs are laid in uncultivated rocky ground, ploughed 

 land and light soil being avoided. Each egg-pod contains about 33 

 eggs. Some damage is done by the winged swarms, which, however, 

 generally disappear by about the middle of June, the eggs remaining in 

 the ground until about the following March, when they hatch. 



Serious loss is often occasioned by the locusts, and of late years a 

 regular warfare has been waged against them by the Government of the 

 island. The following was found to be the most satisfactory method of 

 destroying them : Cloth-screens, about three feet high and bound at 

 the top with a strip of oilcloth to prevent the locusts from climbing 

 over, were erected in front of the advance of the young locusts, pits 

 being dug at intervals close to the screens and at right angles to them 

 on the side towards the locust swarm, the edges of the pits being 

 protected by frames made of cloth and wood, with zinc edge arranged to 

 prevent the young locusts from escaping from the pits. A swarm, on 

 arriving at the screen, was found invariably to turn'right and left along 

 it, apparently endeavouring to go round it, the young locusts thus 

 poured in vast numbers into the pits dug to receive them, and being un- 

 able to escape, were destroyed wholesale. In the case of the locust in- 



