148 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



MIORATIONS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST PREVIOUS TO 1877 

 IN THE STATES EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAU, I. E., 

 EAST OF LONGITUDE 105° (APPROXIMATE). 



I. Migrations into the States late in the summer and early in the 

 autumn. — The followiDg are all the facts positively known regarding the 

 course taken by the swarms entering Texas, Indian Territory, Arkan- 

 sas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, and Dakota, previous 

 to 1877. For most of the data we are indebted to Walsh's First Annual 

 Eeport on the Injurious Insects of the State of Illinois, and Eiley's Sev- 

 enth, Eighth, and I:»Jinth Eeports on the Injurious Insects of Missouri. 



1821. — Swarms of locusts entered Missouri flying from the northwest. 



1864. — Swarms entered Iowa and Minnesota from the northwest. 

 None are reported to have flown into the region south. 



1865. — They flew into Minnesota from the west and northwest. 



1866. — There was a general invasion from west and northwest. In 

 Texas, in Collins County and at LTvalde, the flights were from the north- 

 west, the wind being northwest. 



In Missouri they apparently came from Kansas into Cass County, and 

 Northwestern Missouri was *' overrun from Kansas and the Far West." 

 In Holt County late in September they came in millions from the south- 

 southwest and west. 



In Kansas the locusts first entered the State appearing in the frontier 

 settlements September 12. According to the Leavenworth papers, Sep- 

 tember 1, at Council ■ Grove, a tremendous shower of grasshoppers 

 came from the south, completely filling the air as high as one could see 

 and looking like a driving snow-storm. In Northwestern Kansas they 

 filled the air so as to obscure the sun. They were traced for a distance 

 of 200 miles above Fort Kearney. The Leavenworth papers reported 

 that a vast army of grasshoppers reached Lawrence from the west. 

 The prevailing winds in the State during August and September were 

 westerly. (Walsh in Practical Entomologist, ii, 3, 4.) 



In Nebraska, according to several observers, quoted by Mr. B. D. Walsh, 

 the locusts late in the summer of 1866 came from the west or from a 

 northerly direction. An observer at Peru, Nebr., reported to the 

 Agricultural Department that ' ' in October last the grasshoppers came 

 from the northwest and deposited their eggs." It is obvious that these 

 swarms came from the Eocky Mountain plateau, and probably the 

 valley of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone as well as the North 

 Platte, and their tributaries. 



1867. — In this year the migrations were late in the summer, and were 

 more wide-spread than in the previous year. Into Dallas County, Texas, 

 the locusts flew from the west and traveled east ; in Lampasas County 

 they flew toward the southeast, i. e., from the northwest ; and in Coryell 

 County, from the north. 



In Missouri they were commonly supposed to have come from the 

 Eocky Mountain region. 



