No. 4,] 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



BY 



E. C. COTES. 



The past year has been marked by a general invasion of locusts, which 

 have spread themselves over Sind, Rajputana, 

 Western India! tne P ua J aD > North- Western Provinces and Oudh, 



besides penetrating* sporadically into Guzerat, 

 Ahmedabad, Baroda, Khandesh and parts of Central India, and appear- 

 ing in the Kistna district of the Madras Presidency. They have done 

 a considerable amount of injury to standing crops, especially in Raj- 

 putana and Sind. Specimens have been forwarded to the Indian 

 Museum, from Karachi, Marwar, Jeypore, Ajmere-Merwara, Multan, 

 Naini Tal, Rawal Pindi, Kistna, Etawah, Muzaffergavh, Lahore, and Bah- 

 raich. They all prove to belong to a species which has been identified 

 as Acridium peregrinum, which is said to range throughout the dry country 

 from Algeria, on the west to North- Western India on the east. It has 

 often proved most destructive in Algeria, and is supposed to be the locust 

 of the Bible ; but it must not be confounded either with the locust which 

 has appeared in Algeria during the past two years, or with the locust 

 which invaded the Deccan in 1882-83, though the latter insect was often 

 referred to in reports under the name of Acridium peregrinum} 



A detailed account of the various species of Acrididse {locusts) which 

 have at different times invaded sections of India is being prepared by 

 the writer, and two short preliminary notes, showing concisely the chief 

 poiuts that are known about them, are being circulated in the hope that 

 residents in various parts of India will come forward to supplement, 

 from their personal observations, the very scanty record which is all that 

 is at present available on this interesting subject. 



From Mr. W. H. Irvine of Ranchi have been received specimens of a 



. n . , , dipterous insect which has been determined bv 



A Peach pest. . J 



Mons. Bigot as Rivelha perstcee (seep. 192). It 



1 The locust which has proved destructive in Algeria during the past two years is 

 Stauronotus rnaroccanus, while that which iuvaded the Deccan in 1882-83 probably belonged 

 to the species Acridium succinctum. It is particularly necessary to distinguish carefully 

 between the Deccan locust of 1882-83 and the Bajputana species, as there are important 

 differences in their habits which make it that measures applicable for the destruction of the 

 one are not always successful with the other. 



