106 Indian Musemn Notes. [Vol. II, 



sections, therefore, on the history of the invasion and on the remedies 

 adopted have been taken, much of them, verbatim from the reports of the 

 Bombay Government by Mr. J. Nugent, as recorded in the Records of 

 the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the Government of India. 

 The section on the life-history of the insect is from a report by Mr. 

 Hatchj as reprinted iu the Indian Forester, Volume X. 



In May and June 1882 locusts were noticed in the south-west of the 

 The history of the inva- Presidency (Dharwar and Kanara Collectorates), 

 si""- but they attracted little attention, as such swarms 



are annual visitors of the Kanarese forests, and neither in Kanara 

 nor in Dharvvar did they cause any material injury. With the 

 setting" in of the south-west monsoon however, they spread in flights 

 over the Presidency, to the north and north-east (Satara, Poona, Nasik, 

 Ahmednagar, and Khandesh), and early iu the raius proceeded to lay 

 their eggs and die. These eggs hatched in the end of July, or begin- 

 ning of August, and the young locusts did a large amount of damage, 

 over a wide area, through the mouths of August and September. In 

 the early part of October, with the setting in of the north-east monsoon, 

 the young locusts, which had by this time acquired wings, took flight 

 and ti-avelled with the prevailing wind in a south-westerly direction, 

 doino- some injury in the Poona collectorate as they passed. They then 

 struck the Western Ghats, and spread slowly over the Konkan in Novem- 

 ber, and thence travelled into the Native State of Sawantwari, and the 

 Kanara district. During the remainder of the cold season and the hot 

 weather (December 1882 to the er.d of May 1883) the flights clung to 

 the line of Ghats, occasionally venturing inland into Belgaum, Dharwar, 

 the Kolhapur state, and Satara, and devouring the spring crops in the 

 coast districts, but ordinarily returning to the vicinity of the hill ranges. 

 With the commencement of the south-west monsoon however, in the 

 latter part of May 1 883, the flights began to move in a north-easterly 

 direction, as they had done the preceding year, but in larger numbers. 



At the commencement of the rains they began to alight in vast 

 numbers over an immense tract of country comprising the six Deccan 

 collectorates of Sholapur, Poona, Kliandesh, Ahmednagai', Satara, and 

 Nasik, and also in the three coast collectorates of Ratnagiri, Kolaba, and 

 Thana. They deposited their eggs, and died, and early in August the 

 young locusts hatched out in countless numbers, but were apparently more 

 backward and possessed of less strength and stamina than were those 

 of the preceding year. The unusually heavy rainfall killed vast numbers 

 of these in different parts of the country, and elsewhere the insects seem- 

 ed stunted and feeble, and grew but slowly. They were destroyed in 

 vast numhers by the vigorous measures initiated by the officials, and 

 were also said to be diseased and attacked by mites and nematode para- 



