454 REPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



Great ravages were also committed by locusts in Southern California 

 during tbe same year. — [Riley's 7th Mo. Eept., p. 143. 



W. A. Saunders writes from Kingsbury, Fresno County, Cal., that 

 grasshoppers have been abundant and very destructive, but no migrat- 

 ing swarms have been known in the region for the past three years. This 

 is mostly a grazing country, and hay and grain crops suffered severely. 

 Brown "durra" [Sorghum vulgare^ a kind of millet known as India mil- 

 let), from its acrid taste while green, is protected from locust ravages to 

 a limited extent. Eggs hatched the present year (1877) early in May, 

 though in previous years they hatched most numerously in June. The 

 insects deposited their eggs about June 21, in " sediment," or sandy soil 

 in dry plains, and fly but little. There have been three very bad locust 

 years, one of which was 1856, though locusts have visited this locality 

 in destructive numbers every year since our correspondent has resided 

 in the locality. The damage for 1877 is estimated at $20,000 in Fresno 

 County. Turkeys and other fowls saved orchards and gardens, and sand- 

 hill cranes were of great service, as they are the only kind of bird or 

 fowl that visits that portion of the country during the season the locusts 

 are most abundant. 



Mr. Ellwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, sent us specimens of (Edi- 

 poda atrox from that locality, in a letter dated July 15, 1877, and says : 



The grasshoppers that have done me so rmich injury have been produced in this 

 region (the belt of land from Point Conception to Santa Barbara, between the Santa 

 Inez mountains and the ocean), and all of them have been hatched on the table-lands 

 within this scojDe. The dry year we are now passing through will exterminate them 

 in this region. From the best information I can get, there never were a greater num- 

 ber hatched, but, there being no green food, all died before taking wings. 



In an earlier communication, the same writer, states: 



I have inquired as to the extent of the ravages on the plains of Santa Maria, Lom- 

 poc, and San Julian, distance 80 to 40 miles. At San Julian I was told they were very 

 numerous, but could not go there to see, nor could I rely upon the information ob- 

 tained. . I will say, however, that at said place the green food always remains at least 

 one month later than in this locality. From Santa Maria, no information ; at Lompoc, 

 no grasshoppers were noticed. 



They have uniformly appeared from the 1st to the 15th of April. In dry years, when 

 the grasses are short, and in localities where sheep have fed, leaving the ground bare, 

 they appear earlier and in greater numbers. In seasons of abundant late raics, pro- 

 ducing rank growth of vegetation, but few, apparently, are hatched. Two of the con- 

 ditions necessary to hatch all the eggs are bare ground and warm sunlight. I have 

 also observed that where the ground has been bared later than the middle of April, 

 admitting the sun's rays, that very many have been hatched out, but they do not ap- 

 pear to be so strong, neither so destructive. They take wings in about six weeks ; are 

 most destructive just after they begin to fly. In their flight, so far as my experience 

 goes, I am led to believe the direction is instinctive, either with or against a strong 

 current of air, to the nearest locality of green food, and in the copulating geason to the 

 best locality for the easy deposit of the eggs, and where warm sunlight exposure is 

 certain to hatch them the following year. The time of deposit begins about the mid- 

 dle of June ; from this period they do much less injury ; do not seem to require food ; 

 gather together in bunches on knolls where the earth is loose and the exposure warm. 



