334 EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



believes that tbe newly hatched worm (which he wroDgly styles embryo) 

 may crawl up the stems and trunks of plants and shrubs by aid of the 

 moisture or extravasation with which these are sometimes covered for 

 hours, and even days, in spring; and this belief seems plausible, and is, 

 in fact, the only way in which, from present knowledge, we can explain 

 the facts. From the studies of this author, and of Diesing, Meissner, 

 and others, it has been concluded that Mermis albicans Diesing is but 

 the mature sexual form of 31. acuminata,^^ which is the asexual form of 

 the species.^^ 



Miscellaneous. — In addition to the animals enumerated that feed 

 upon or within the locust after it leaves the egg, there are doubtless 

 many others which occasionally destroy it and that do their small part 

 in helping to keep it in check. Various species of ants have been ob- 

 served at the work, and Mr. J. I. Salter, of Saint Cloud, Minn., writes, 

 June 7, 1877 : 



Two or three days since I was told by a man owning land about a mile from me, 

 that the ants in his corn-field were eating the 'hoppers. I repaired with him at once, 

 and found it to be a fact. On entering his field, which is quite sandy, I saw at the 

 foot of the young corn-plants from one to four holes in the ground made by the ants, 

 and the little fellows v^ery busy going down and coming up. I soon learned their 

 tactics. When the young 'hopper got on the young corn, the ants seized him, and four 

 or five ants soon dispatched him. They then dismembered him and carried him down 

 into the ground. The ants are very small, and there are millions of them. 



Various spiders, a soldier-bug {Apiomerus crassipes, Say), the Carolina 

 Mantis {Mantis Carolina, L.), and certain drasgon-^ies {Libellulidce), have 

 also been observed by our correspondents to occasionally prey upon the 

 Eocky Mountain locust. 



CHAPTER XII. 



VEETEBEATE EKEMIES. 



It is more than probable that the good offices of birds and other verte- 

 brate^ animals, wild and domesticated, in destroying locusts, notwith- 

 standing all that has been said and written upon the subject, have been 

 underestimated. We are inclined to think that even entomologists, 

 although contending bravely and strenuously for their feathered friends, 

 have not fully appreciated their importance in this work, so far as it re- 

 fers to the locusts. During the past year the attention of the people in 

 the locust- visited area has been more particularly directed to this ques- 

 tion than ever before, and the result as shown by the numerous answers 



90 First described as Filaria acuminata by Eudolphi. 



31 Filaria lacustris is also bnt the asexual form of the same. As we have found both the albicans and 

 'acuminata forms truly parasitic (see note to page 327), there would seem to be something st^ll further to 

 ascertain in the interesting life-history of the genus. Siebold gives the fallowing definition of the spe- 

 cies : 



Mermis albicans: Corpus longissimnm antrorsum attenuatum lacteum. Os terminale minimum. 

 Cauda rotundata. Apertura genitalis maris pene cornea duplice munita et ante extremitatem cauda- 

 lem sita. Apertura genitalis feminae haud procul post corporis medium collocata. Ovula simplicia 

 alba. 



