No. 4.] Locusts. lol 



1877 by Mr, Scott has recently been identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure 

 as closely allied to tlie species Acridmm sicccinctum. In 1878 locusts 

 which had probably strayed from the flights then prevalent in the 

 Madras Presidency, appeared in the Patkour subdivision of the Santhal 

 Parganas from the south, but did not alig-ht (Commissioner of Bhagul- 

 pore and the Santhal Parganas' Report, dated 26th June 1890). They 

 also appeared in small numbers in Orissa, but did no appreciable damage 

 (Babu C. N, Ghose's Report, dated 20th February 1890), and passed over 

 Chumparan (Mr. W. H. Grimley's Report, dated 14th July 1883). In 

 1881 a flight of local origin appeared in Manbhoom and did some slight 

 injury. The following is an extract from a report, dated ll*th July 1883, 

 by Mr. W. H- Giimley on the subject : — 



" The subdivisional officer of Gobindpore, in the district o£ Manbhoom, reporfis 

 that in June 1881 a swarm of locusts visited the subdivision, extending over an area 

 about ten by five miles, and about a quarter of a mile high. Thev are said to have 

 emerged partly from the Lagoo Pahar, and partly from the Paresnath hill, in the 

 Hazaribagh district. Considerable numbers alighted on the young dhan seedlings, 

 Indian-corn and gondlee, which had just sprouted, and destroyed them. Much 

 damage is said to have been caused by the insects, but they did not stay for more than 

 four or five hours." .... The insects were " about four inches long with 

 beads and wings of a red colour. A. large number were destroyed by the people, and 

 some were eaten up by the kites and crows, also by low-caste aborigines. They are 

 said to possess the flavour of shrimps or lobsters." 



Locusts in Madras. 



Both in 1889 and 1890 flights of Acridium peregrinum from North- 

 Western India penetrated into the Madras Presidency, and did slight 

 damage over considerable areas; generally speaking, however, the locusts, 

 which occasionally prove destructive to crops in Madras, are of more 

 local origin. There does not appear to be any one species which is 

 invariably complained of, but in years of drought numerous species, 

 which are ordinarily present in small numbers, multiply so as to injure 

 the crops, some of them, however, being much more destructive than 

 others. An account of what has been ascertained about the flights of 

 Acridium peregrinum, which penetrated into the Madras Presidency in 

 1889 and 1890, has been given in the report on that species. The follow- 

 ing is a summary of what is known of the other species of locusts that 

 have proved injurious in the Madras Presidency : — 



In 1866, a year of scarcity, locusts appeared in one of the villages 

 of the Chingleput district, in the Madras Presidency, and did some 

 damage (Mr. W. R. Robertson's Report, dated 23rd April 1883). No 

 information has been obtained as to the identity of this insect. 



In 1878, the last year of the great South Indian famine, locusts 

 invaded the whole of the Madras Presidency, not generally doing a great 

 amount of injury, though in some cases the injury was sufficient seriously 



