68 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



ward after they reached Northwest Missouri ; and that Southwest Mis- 

 souri, Southeast Kansas, and Northwest Arkansas, would have escaped 

 had it not been for west and southwest winds that brought back insects 

 which had reached south of these points. 



" The dates of arrival of these insects are nearly a month later than 

 in 1874, and in this respect the 1876 invasion more nearly resembles 

 that of 1866. It was also less immediately disastrous than that of 1874, 

 and most of the crops were either garnered or beyond injury, and the 

 principal damage was to the Fall wheat, which, as already stated, was 

 eaten down, and in most cases effectually destroyed, at a time, too, when 

 it was generally too late to do anything more than to let the ground lie 

 over to plant in corn in the spring." — (Eiley's Ninth Report.) 



1877. — Although the prospect of injury from young locusts was 

 threatening, yet, as in Kansas and Nebraska, the young soon after 

 hatching perished in large numbers, so that little injury was experienced 

 and the crops were unusually large. No locusts arrived in the State 

 from the Rocky Mouatains. The swarms of fledged locusts which sur- 

 vived the cold, wet weather were light in the State, and did no mischief, 

 and, so far as known, laid no eggs. The following statement will give 

 some idea of the distribution and movements of the local swarms : 



"• The insects were leaving Jasper and adjacent southwest counties 

 where they had hatched, the latter part of May and early in June, that 

 part of the State being vacated by the middle of June, and the course 

 being north and northwest. They left the northwest counties toward 

 the end of June and during the first week of July, the direction being 

 northwest, except on June 30, when some stragglers were blown back 

 from the northwest over ^Nodaway County." 



August 14, large numbers passed over Oregon, Holt County, flying 

 southwest ; about the 20th, a few passed over Flag Springs, Andrew 

 County, from the northeast j at Pickering, Nodaway County, during the 

 third week in September large swarms were observed flying from the 

 northwest to the southeast, but none were known to alight. In Atchi- 

 son County large swarms from the north passed over in August and 

 September, and a few dropped down, but no eggs were deposited. 



THE LOCUST IN KANSAS. 



We have fuller information regarding the ravages of locusts in this 

 State than in Nebraska, probably from the fact that the State was set- 

 tled earlier and has a much larger population, and suffered more from 

 the hordes of invading locusts.^ 



3 1846. — There are no records of locusts in Kansas in 1846, and I quote the following statement doubt- 

 ful whether the grasshoppers referred to were local species or emigrants from the west. "As we pro- 

 ceeded on our journey, we heard the confused hum of thousands of grasshoppers, now and then broken 

 by the chirping of the cricket. These insects are found in great abundance, and obtain greater size 

 than any I have seen elsewhere."— (IsTotes of a Military Reconnaissance from Fort Leavenworth, in 

 Missouri to San Diego, Cal., by W. H. Emory, p. 392. The insects were observed July 2, 1846, in the 

 Kansas River Valley.) 



