44* Indian Mnsenm Notes. [ YqI, IIL 



subject beyond the fact that the destructive migratory species Acriiliuin 

 peregrinum is often prevalent along- the sonthern coasts ol Persia : — 



"There are no records of any flights of h)custs liaving come as far north as the 

 Teheran district, but it is reported from Kermanshah that locusts visit tliat district 

 every five or ten years, and that visitations occasionally liave taken place in two 

 consecutive veais. These locust visitations come f lom the Traki Arab, that is to say, 

 from such districts as Karkoot, Suleimanieh, and Mosuh There are tliree distinct 

 classes of locusts which visit tlie Shiraz district, and whicii are classified as the Mesri, 

 Dari/aie, and Tanho. The former always arrive from the direction of Lar and Sabeh, 

 near the latter of which places there is a shrine called Alam Shah, where rliese locusts 

 are said to come into existence, and from whence, after a few years, when their numbers 

 have increased, they advance upon Lar Darab and Fasa. These locusts always travel 

 from south to north, and when they have ouce left a place never return to it. The 

 Daryaie locusts always appear from the direction of Bandar Abbas and Bushire, hence 

 their name of sea-locnsts. They eat nothing but the leaves of trees. The Tanho 

 locusts have no wings. They live longer tlian the Mesri locusts, and their existence 

 only terminates with the commencement of winter. 



" In tiie hotter parts of the Kermanshah district locusts arrive about the end of 

 March, when the fields are green, and at once set to work to devour the young vegeta- 

 tion. Near Kermanshah itself the locusts come out from under the ground about the 

 middle of May. In the Shiraz district the date of the arrival of tlie locusts is fixed 

 as bting early in March. In the Kermansliah district oviposicion takes place in the 

 hotter regions about the end of May, and iu the colder places about a month later 

 The eggs are hatched in the Shiraz district early in .March. 



" No remedial measures have been adopted in Persia, either by the Government 

 or the people, for the extermination of locusts, though in Turkey the soldiers are some- 

 times ordered to assist to sweep up the locusts in the early morning when they are be- 

 numbed with cold, and to throw them into holes dug in the ground which are subse™ 

 quently filled in with earth ; and also in that country locusts' eggs are purchased from 

 the peasants, and the progress of the ravages of the pest is thus largely arrested. 



" Locusts and their eggs are, however, largely destroyed by the following four 

 natural causes : (1) rain during the hot seasons ; (2) want of rain in winter; (3) the 

 fact that after a few years they cannot lay eggs, and the generation of the species thus 

 comes to an end ; and (4^ excessive cold ; snow or hail kill tiie insects themselves if 

 they are not grown up sufficiently to stand climatic clianges. The following,' popular 

 le^^'end may also point to the starling as being a natural destroyer of the locusts. It 

 is said that there is a spring at Kasvin, called Cheshmeh-i-Sar or the Starling's 

 spring, and that if water is brought from this spring and sprinkled with certain 

 ceremonies on the ground which is infested with this pest, larj^e numbers of starlings 

 appear and devour the locusts, thus preventing further devastation of the crops. 



•' The eggs of locusts are deposited at the foot of mountains or in hard places, and 

 for 40 days after hatchings they are not provided with winy:s, and cons-equeutly cannot 

 move about easily from place to place, but at the end of that period their wings grow 

 and they set off on their flight, laying waste the fields which they pass on their way. 

 Locusts live for 120 days, and during this short period of existence they lay eg^? three 

 times. Ovipositiou commences when they are 90 days old, and is repeated twice more, 

 with an interval of 10 days each time, at the end of which three ovipositions they 

 have reached an age of 110 days, and then after a further interval of 10 days they 

 die. Each locust lavs 90 eg^s the first time, 70 the second, and 60 the third. Tlie 



