[234] EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



I have most satisfactory evidence that they have flown from the north part of Lyon 

 County to Lake Benton — say 40 miles — ene day, and returned to the central part of 

 Lj on County the third day, and after remaining a day or two gone east and not re- 

 turned. 



They do not fly high in cloudy weather, hut will go from one wheat-field to another. 

 Do not fly in hard winds, and never are seen flying except hetween 8 a. m. and 7 p. m., 

 ^^euerally from 10 a. m. to 4 p. m. If they fly nights no one knows it. If they go to 

 roost they are in the same spot next morning, and do not move till they breakfast and 

 the dew is all oif. They only float with the wind when flying high, and go just as 

 fast as the wind blows. With a strong glass I can plainly see locusts and cottonwood 

 seeds flying together, and they keep the same rate of progress, but the locusts will 

 leave the cottonwood seeds to the right and left, and go below and above them, show- 

 ing that they make use of their wings to keep up and gyrate in flying, but I think 

 they propel ahead none at all after they get high, but fly forward and upward very 

 fast when rising from the ground to fly away, or ior short flights. 



As to how far they fly, I have no reliable data, nor much basis for an opinion. But 

 we can, at least, judge pretty certainly the age of a locust; for a locust breeds but 

 once, never couples until it has flown, but does directly after, doing his courting flying, 

 and dnes not live long after it lays its eggs. So we can judge by their age in what 

 latitude they hatched, and by that give a good guess how far they have traveled. 

 Now, those that came here in 1873, June 17, began to couple as soon as they lit. They 

 hatched and came to the winged state far south of this, and came here pretty rapidly. 

 Last summer flights came here in August (I cannot fix date), ai^d began to couple as 

 soon as they alighted. We could trace them back by telegraph as far as Manitoba. I 

 believe they came from the Saskatchewan Valley and hatched after the middle of June. 

 I think they fly above the limits of human or telescopic vision, in long journeys, and it 

 may be day and night, for a thousand miles. 



As to preference in food the locust, while willing to eat anything, is really epicu- 

 rean ; but of all things, they love the tender leaves and new wood of maples, poplars, 

 ash, box-elder, bass, currant, and raspberry; lilacs they will eat to the ground, and 

 kill rhubarb and asparagus of large growth ; pepper, tobacco, mustard, cabbage, tur- 

 nips, celery, beets, carrots, spinach, parsley, and lettuce they generally take clean; 

 beans, they are fond of; corn, they do not like so well as tender prairie-grass till about 

 silking, then they are very fond of it. They eat barley, rye, wheat, oats, and flax about 

 alike; some seasons they seem to eat wheat more, some oats more, accoraing as one is 

 more ten<?er than the other when they arrive. Vines — cucumbers, melons, pumpkins, 

 &c., they let alone generally ; also potatoes, tomatoes, and pease, but will eat any of 

 them If hard pressed. 



I think all birds eat some grasshoppers, but ducks, partridges, quails, and prairie- 

 chickens, are so much vegetarians that I seldom find a grasshopper in their craws. 

 Crows, blackbirds of all stripes, snipe, plover, king-birds, ground-birds, pigeons of all 

 kinds, geese, cranes, turkeys, and common fowls destroy great numbers. The fancy 

 hens are too lazy to catch them. Ten turkeys and their young will keep a ten-acre 

 lot free from grasshoppers ; I have tried it successfully. But in this country frogs are 

 very numerous, hatching in the " sloos," and going into ponds, lakes, and streams as 

 the " sloos " dry out, and they kill more grasshoppers, ten to one, than all the birds (?). 

 I have seen a frog in the twilight in my door-yard eat 5 large locusts in 8 minutes; 

 and he kept it up all night for all that I know. Skunks eat them. — ^[D. F. Weymouth, 

 July 7, 1877. 



SauJc Eajnds, Benton County. — The section I live in has not been troubled with grass- 

 hoppers since I have lived here — that is since 1870. This is a timbered section and 

 they do not appear to thrive in it. On 13th August, 1874, a great many came from the 

 norVhwest and deposited eggs, but there was very few of them hatched out the follow- 

 ing spring. There is a regular flight of them from the northwest to southeast from 

 about the first week in August until about September 10, every year since the dale 

 first mentioned. — [James McCulloch, June 18, 1877. 



Morristown. — I have watched probably twenty egg-masses go through the process of 

 hatching. They all cast off the outer shell before any leave the cocoon ; and with 

 their bodies and long legs covered with a translucent film, opened in front, with their 

 heads and fore legs protruding they writhe and press the foremost individual against 

 and through the covering of earth. So badly is the first one punished by squeezing 

 that it is sometimes the last of the lot to make a jump. After the first, the others 

 quickly follow by the wriggling, moving their heads to and fro and pushing with their 

 short fore legs. As they emerge from their cells and reach the surface of the ground 

 they tip over sidewise or upon their backs, and by the motion of their bodies and re- 

 strained legs, helped by the legs and feet that are free, they slide this gown, which 

 restrains them, backwards ; when it has approximated the posterior extremity they 

 whop over upon their faces and make a jump. By this first jump, if successful, they 

 are freed from this gossamer sack, and are entirely at liberty. If the first attempt 

 fails they try another jump, and until they become free. The sacks (the thin white 



