74 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



2.35 p. m., when there were a great many flying, as high as could he seen with the na- 

 ked eye. At 3.30 many of them were quite low, and a few were seen to drop down, and 

 they continued to fall until 4.30 p. m. At 5 p. m. they ceased to fly, and there was about 

 one locust to every square rod. They flew very swiftly, and in a north northeast 

 direction. 



June 19, I again visited the country round about Chanute. Found the locusts had 

 nearly all disappeared. Those which had hatched previous to my first visit had all died 

 in a few days afterward. The eggs were not all hatched, for in front of Mr. Ashby's 

 house we dug up good eggs which had been deposited in a hard, sandy soil, and were 

 overlaid with a deposit of sand about one inch deep, from an adjoining field. Most of 

 them Avere spoiled. 



At Parsons, June 20, 1 found the locusts molting the last time, and many of them 

 already had their wings. Some were flying, but not in any considerable numbers. Few 

 had come to maturity. At Chetopa they nearly all had wings, and had been leaving 

 for two days. Several large swarms were seen feeding upon dog-fennel, but nowhere 

 did they injure the corn or wheat. Nearly all the gardens in the eastern portion of the 

 city were eaten up. 



Locusts were observed flying over Lawrence in a northerly and northwesterly direc- 

 tion, every clear day, until July 10. 



The heaviest flight of the season was southward on the 20th of July. 

 Light swarms continued to fly about in various portions of the State 

 until October, flying southward and southwesterly. 



THE LOCUST IN NEBRASKA. 



While only the western half of Minnesota and the western third of 

 Iowa are liable to invasion, the entire State of Nebraska has been more 

 or less invaded, different portions, however, suff'ering in different years. 



1857. — There must have been a locust invasion in this year in West- 

 ern Nebraska, for the young appeared in 1858 as may be seen by 

 reading the subjoined paragraph. 



1858. — "In the spring of 1858, as soon as grass was three inches high, 

 near the creek and through the valleys, we found them. * * * They 

 ate my corn which was four or five inches liigh, also turnips, grass, &c., 

 (and I believe onions) but their ravages were not great. * * * I 

 heard that they were bad on the Missouri Eiver that season, 400 miles 

 northeast of Laramie, the direction the wind took them. And the next 

 season I heard of them in Minnesota." (W. M. Hiuman.) 



1861. — *' Also yesterday, at 12 o'clock, I discovered them very thick 

 and higli up, traveling with the wind to the northwest for one and a 

 half hours, when there were no more to be seen. We have had two or 

 three days of hard southeast wind, and probably these were successive 

 grasshoppers from Texas or the Cherokee country." (W. M. Hinman in 

 a letter to the Smithsonian Institution, dated June 10, 1861). 



1864. — This is the first year, as yet known, in which Nebraska suffered. 

 According to Governor Furnas, Northern Nebraska was overrun by 

 locusts this year. 



1866. — Late in August swarms crossed the State (especially the south- 

 ern half) from the west, extending nearly or quite to the Missouri Eiver, 

 devouring everything about Fort Kearney, and Nebraska City, and the 



