218 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



PLIGHT AT NIGHT. 



"It is the very general experience tbroughont the country subject to 

 invasion that the winged insects rise as soon as the sun begins to dis- 

 sipate the dew, and that they come down again toward evening as the 

 sun's rays lose their power. It is a question, therefore, whether they 

 ever continue flying during the night, and one which future investiga- 

 tion will doubtless settle. I am of the opinion that during the warmer 

 midsummer and early fall season, when the insects are departing from 

 their northwest hatching-grounds, they must not infrequently continue 

 flight from necessity ; for the descent of a swarm borne along in a strong 

 current of air, at an altitude of over a mile above the earth, will depend 

 more on some change in strength or direction of the Current than on any 

 other condition of the atmosphere.'' 



The experience we have been able to gather during the year on this 

 point is confirmatory of the views expressed in the above passage, and 

 in addition to the evidence brought forward in Chapter Vll (p. 147) we 

 may cite the following facts : * 



Two years ago the locnsts were seen to rise about sundown, three miles north of this 

 place, and to alight in Oak Township, this county. In August, 1874, Messrs. H. Lamb 

 and. L. Conger were at work on the steeple of the Methodist Church, in this town. 

 Looking toward the sky they observed immense swarms of locusts going southwest for 

 three consecutive days. They continued to pass up to 6 p. m., when the men left 

 work, and none were heard of as alighting short of Mitchell and Smith Counties, in 

 Kansas. The weather was dry, clear,, and windy. The parties do not remember the 

 exact days of the month, as they made no notes, but they are reliable, intelligent 

 men.— (W. R. Follett, Malvern, Iowa, July 15, 1877.) 



In one case, where the 'hoppers were very numerous, a person burnt a straw stack 

 at night, and in the morning bushels of dead ones were found in and around it ; per- 

 haps they were drawn to it as the moth to a candle. — (W. J. Newell, Athol, Sioux 

 County, Iowa, July 2, 1877.) 



I never knew the insects to travel in sight during the night. They cannot, or will 

 not, move in a heavy damp atmosphere. But that they remain in the atmosphere dur- 

 ing the night seems almost certain, probably at a great height. There must be a 

 period from the time the winged insects take flight until the time they commence de- 

 positing eggs when they remain for days and nights very high in the atmosphere out 

 of sight. This seems evident from the fact that when they first commence flying, and 

 until they are all gone, they rise in immense swarms during the early part of the day, 

 but seldom many come down again. — (E. Snyder, Atchison, Kans., June 26, 1877.) 



Mr. G. G. Hay, of Saint Andrews, Manitoba, informed us while stay, 

 ing with him that in traveling, in 18G8, to Saint Paul, he noticed on one 

 occasion that as soon as the sun was up the air was filled with locusts, 

 though those which had descended the previous day did not rise for 

 several hours afterward on account of the heavy dew. Mr. K. Y. Mc- 

 Dowell, of Worthington, Minn. (App. 17), states it as his experience that 

 they fly all night with favorable wind. We were also informed at the 

 conference of governers, in 1876, by a reporter of the Omaha Rerald, 

 whose name we have forgotten, that in order to test this question he 

 had sent up a kite at night, covered on one side with tar, and that wheu 



