[114] EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



prove very destructive to them, but tlie reappearance of the sun and the warm weather 

 seemed to impart renewed life in the seemingly dead 'hoppers, and made them as active 

 as ever; but the farmers along the Greenhorn do not despair, and the acreage sown 

 this year along that stream will fully equal that sown last year, and promises a good 

 crop, if no damages are sustained from the 'hoppers. — \_Colorado Farmer. 



Bulletin No. 2 to hand. By way of information concerning the grasshoppers, will 

 say from some cause the majority of those hatched, early in the season have disap- 

 peared. A severe snow and rain storm of some days the latter part of April seemed to 

 have such an effect upon the larvae just ready to hatch that a large proportion never 

 came forth. Large flocks of birds destroyed many. At this writing I hear of no dam- 

 age being done to crops by them. Those that have escaped seemed demoralized and 

 are scattered so the farmers apprehend no serious danger from them. I know of no 

 extended efforts being made to destroy them. Crops are looking splendid; a heavy 

 harvest is anticipated. We have not found the grasshoppers in sufficient numbers yet 

 to experiment with our exterminator, so we have nothing more to report concerning 

 it.— [J. S. Florry, Greeley, May 28, 1877. 



From Mr. Joseph Coberly, who has just returned from Deadwood, we learn that from 

 fifty miles north of Laramie City to Custer there are plenty of little 'hoppers. In Red 

 Caiion, he said they are thicker than he ever saw them, literally covering the face of 

 the earth. If these j)! agues are not killed by some natural causes, we may expect them 

 down on us about the last of July. Thanks to the energy of our farmers and their 

 early planting, most of the crops will be out of the way. — {^Colorado Farmer. 



During a residence of five years in Colorado I have repeatedly examined the species 

 that do the most damage in Colorado, and have found it to be the single migratory 

 species, Calopienus spretus, although at certain points the (Edipoda corallipes is found in, 

 limited numbers; but I doubt whether it does much damage. 



The grasshoppers which have done the most damage have been the migratory. The 

 unfledged insect can do but very little harm, on account of the suddenness and late- 

 ness of our spring. 



The hatching has been retarded this year for three weeks or a month, owing to the 

 severe weather in early spring, and the consequence has been that hatching has been 

 going on incessantly for the last month or six weeks, and I believe by the time hatch- 

 ing is completed most of the young will have perished. Instead of being very active, 

 as I believe is the rule with the young, they are very weak, are quiet, and seem to 

 show very little tendency to travel. 



On the divide, near Colorado Springs, they are quite numerous, and seem to be trav- 

 eling northeast, but perishing in large numbers owing to heavy rains. About Den vex 

 they are few in numbers, and farmers for miles around, are rejoiced, thinking that 

 Providence has in some way destroyed the eggs. We have had numerous heavy snow- 

 storms, saturating and loosening up the ground, making it, to my idea, exceedingly 

 unfavorable for the eggs. To show what effect moisture may have had on hatching 

 of the eggs, Sergeant Barwick, of the Signal Service, shows an excess of moisture in 

 Colorado (in inches) 4.11, from whence the excess appears to lessen somewhat in all 

 directions except west. This excess is for the year 1877 and over the last five years. 

 To this I believe to be due the grasshopper deficiency here, and the question is whether 

 it will exert its influence east of here, so that the flying 'hopijers will also be few. — 

 [Aug. Jacob, Denver, June 1, 1877. 



Denver, June 2.— Mr. J. S. Stanger, editor of Colorado Farmer, tells us that in 1876 

 there was a swarm of spretus three hundred miles long along the Kansas Pacific Rail- 

 road eastward of ])enver. He thinks they came from a little east of north, and not 

 from the west. 



Mr. A. H. Arnett, says spretus hatched abundantly in the spring, but since died. 

 Had hatched '■'■ within a week," namely, about May 25. He thinks they have all died 

 from natural causes, i. e., meteorological, as I understood him. I saw them about his 

 farm on the plains, next to his wheat-fields, among the cactus, &c. He says the young 

 are more feetjle than ever before ; that immense quantities of eggs were laid, but the 

 Antliomyice (?) laid their eggs in the autumn in the holes and among the eggs laid by 

 the locust — " would deposit a nit on the egg-sac of the locust, and hatch out in the 

 spring and destroy the eggs." 



There were very heavy cold rains early in May which must have destroyed the young, 



and there were light snows, four inches; more fell at Denver than at Cheyenne, and more 



at Greeley than at Denver. This combination of rains and cold weather is sufficient 



to account for the destruction of those young which escaped the ravages of the fly and 



' other insects. 



Mr. EUwood, of Denver, tells me that the fly destroyed the locust-eggs and " many 

 were laid barren, containing only a thin fluid [this may have been normal, the 

 albumen and yolk], and millions became defective in the autumn, were weakened by 

 a parasite fly [mite]. 



All the farmers agree, Mr. Arnett says, that they can take care of the youug locusts. 



