[100] REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



is two wings of canvas and a hole at the convergent point, thus: Px- Trenches are 

 resorted to by many. A sheet-iron, eight to ten feet long, having compartments or 

 divisions filled with petroleum, something after the fashion of a sorghum evaporator, 

 with a high back, is placed upon wheels, whose axle is shaped to draw the iron near 

 the ground, is used by a few. The farmers are about equally divided in opinion as to 

 the x^rospect of future damage, some claiming on the one hand that they will disap- 

 pear, and cite certain years in which they went away or died. Men of this opinion 

 are principally old settlers. Others have a directly opposite opinion ; but they are, I 

 believe, a class of men generally known as chronic grumblers, and are new-comers. 



Taking into consideration the inclemency of the weather, it being cold and wet, and 

 the unhealthy condition of the egg, 1 am of the opinion that the damage will be very 

 slight. My own experience is that they are not as strong and healthy as those of last 

 year, and of a paler, more delicate color. I have specimens of them in all stages pre- 

 served in alcohol, and I notice a vast difference in the two years. Thursday I brought 

 in a box of eggs, containing at least 300, and set them in a south widow, slightly 

 covered with loose earth, and u]) to this time not one-fifth of them have hatched. — 

 [E. M. Sanford, BurlingamCj May 27, 1877. 



Chanute, May 27.— Less than one-half of the eggs are hatched here. Those in the 

 ground are still good, and hatch as soon as brought to the surface. The ground is very 

 wet and heavy, and this, I believe, is what prevents the hatching. 



This afternoon I have traveled on horseback over as large a tract of country as pos- 

 sible. Found very few locusts more than three days old; myriads of young ones; 

 very little damage being done by them. Nothing is being done to destroy them, for 

 people believe that they will all disappear of their own accord. The weather has been 

 very hot (90" in shade) for three days. - 



CoFFEYViLLE, May 28. — To-day I have visited many farms in this region, and 

 find the locusts comparatively scarce, though larger than any yet seen. They are very 

 variable in size. The same swarm often contains all sizes, from the smaller to those 

 which have passed the third and a few even the fourth molt. Very little harm is being- 

 done by them. Some few gardens are being injured, and I saw one field of wheat a 

 part of which was taken by them. In answer to my inquiries, the farmers say that 

 many locusts hatched early in the season, but have all disappeared. They do not ap- 

 prehend any trouble from them this summer. 



I find no uuhatched eggs in the ground. Some Paris green was put out late last Sat- 

 urday evening, and changed several times yesterday. In the evening I found a great 

 many dead locusts, and the ground round about the poison cleared for twenty feet or 

 more. A few hours after the bait is set they begin to hop toward it, and fall to eating 

 vigorously at first. Suddenly they stop, make one or two long jumps, and stop, stretch, 

 first one leg and then another, and lastly the long or hopping legs ; with these latter 

 they make a few quick, involuntary motions, and then turn over and expire, some in 

 one minute, others live four or five minutes. — [From special assistants of Commission. 



May 30, saw Prof. F. H. Snow, at Lawrence, Kans., who tells me that the young 

 locusts are now common in the larva state at a point on the Kansas Pacific Railroad 

 ten miles west of Lawrence. None were seen east of this point. 



At Topeka, spretus was common along the railroad in the second and third larval 

 stage. They had only eaten holes in the weeds about the houses. Heavy rains had 

 killed the young. 



May 31, at Brookville, winged spretus was not as common as other Calopteni (diffe- 

 rentialisf), but more common in the second and third larval stages, about farms espe- 

 cially. No spretus seen beyond this point on the railroad, but other grasshoppers were 

 abundant. — [Notes by A. S. Packard, jr. 



I am happy to say there have been no serious depredations so far as my observation 

 has led. I have observed in many localities where millions of young locusts hatched 

 since the recent hard and continuous rains have been washed out into the main 

 streams and carried off. In many localities they have disappeared by some unknown 

 cause. On the whole, the farmers have no reason for complaint yet. — [R. M. Spivey, 

 Topeka, Kans., May 1^, 1877. 



The locusts are not very numerous in Allen County now. Somehow they have 

 hatched very slowly, and disappeared very mysteriously to many of us. We have 

 burned some on old grass and on scattered hay. Rolled a few. Domestic and wild 

 fowls have devoured many. — [H. E. Van Deman, Geneva, Kans., May 30, 1877. 



The grasshoppers are still hatching out in some localities, and in others there are 

 none hatching yet. The places where they are hatching appear to be of a peculiar 

 character, viz, where it has been sheltered on the south by hills, timber, or some 

 thing of th t kind, and in places which were low and wet, and wholly or partly 

 covered with water during the month of February. I have so far failed to hear 

 of any very extensive damages having been done in this locality. One of our farmers 

 who iias suffered the most heavily has constructed a fine exterminator, something 



