62 Indian Insect Pests. [Vol. L 



This is an orthopterous insect, determined as Schizodactylns mon- 

 strosus ; it is hoped that further particulars may be obtained concerning 

 it. 



Specimens of an insect which resembles the migratory locust, Acri. 

 di>im peregrinum of Western India, have been for- 

 warded by the Officiating Collector of the 24-Per- 

 cunnahs, from Raja Durga Churn Law, who notices that the insect is 

 most destructive in Nuddea, Hooghly, the 24-Pergunnahs and Midna- 

 pore coming in swarms, which darken the horizon and destroy whole 

 fields. No information has hitherto been received of the presence of 

 true locusts in Eastern Bengal, and until these specimens shall have 

 been compared with types of the Western locust, the writer is inclined to 

 look on them as probably distinct from it. The matter, however, is one 

 of considerable interest, on which it is to be hoped further light will be 

 shown. 



The Indian Museum does not, at present, possess authentic speci- 

 mens of the insects, which are known in India as " Locusts/' and which 

 from time to time do sucb serious injury to vegetation in the Punjab, 

 and in Western and Southern India; information 1 also has been received 

 from Surgeon-Greneral Edward Balfour, in London, that the British. 

 Museum is similarly situated. 



It is very desirable that this pest should be fully investigated, the 

 writer therefore would suggest that authentic specimens from different 

 localities should be obtained and sent to the Indian Museum, where 

 some of them can be preserved for reference, and others forwarded to 

 the British Museum, and European specialists, for examination. To 

 secure authenticity the specimens should, in each case, be taken from 

 some destructive swarm, as there are a large number of other grass- 

 hoppers in India, which very closely resemble true locusts in appear- 

 ance, and are therefore liable to be mistaken for locusts, though they 

 do not " migrate," or occur in sufficient numbers to occasion serious 

 injury. 



The first point which has to be settled about locusts in India is 

 whether the destructive flights which periodically appear in the Bombay, 

 Punjab, and Madras Presidencies, are invariably Acridium peregrinum, 

 the species described by Dr. Macdonald as the locust which proved 

 injurious in the Bombay Presidency in 1883, and which has so often 

 invaded large areas in Northern Africa and South-Western Asia. 



Winged locusts, besides the wingless larval forms and eggs, can 

 readily be killed and preserved by dropping them alive into bottles of 

 alcohol, which should be carefully filled up and closely corked to pre- 

 vent damage by jarring on the road. 



1 A letter to the Secretary, Revenue Board, Calcutta, dated 22nd November 1888. 



