[248] EEPORT UNITED STATES ENTOMOLOGICAL COMMISSION. 



I have sent specimens of Caloptenus, preserved in alcohol in tin can, to headquarters 

 Saint. Louis, as requested.— [Geo. W. Sweet, Bismarck, Dak., September 18, 1877. 



I have just (to-day, January 14, 1878) been able to get hold of the Yankton Press f r 

 1871-72. For 1871 you will see thf re is very little. The item about 'hoppers about 

 Berthold indicates that they probably appeared there. The contradiction in the edi- 

 torial is probably a contradiction of the alleged destruction, not of the fact of 

 appearance. F.sr 1872, it seems there was a migration southward across the south- 

 eastern counties. It is stated in one of the items that it did not reach as far east as 

 Sioux Falls, and in the letters that I have received from the East Dakota counties 

 north of Sioux Falls nothing has ever been said of their appearance there, nor in any 

 of the Southwestern Minnesota counties. In fact, all those counties, both in Minne- 

 sota and Dakota, were hardly settled then. The damage seems to have been trifling; 

 at least I should judge so from all that the prc^ss has to say about the crops that fall. — 

 [A. Whitman. 



The following item we found in the Chicago Tribune of the 26th. From passengers 

 by steamboats that passed Berthold at a later date than this informant purports to 

 have written, we learned that crops have not been injured, and the probability is there 

 is not the least foundation for the report : " The destructive force of a grasshopper vis- 

 itation is indicated in a note from a settler in Dakota, who writes from Fort Berthold, 

 July 26: 'Everything was growing finely on the farm until this morning, when, at 

 about 11 o'clock, the grasshoi)pers arrived, and have very nearly cleaned us out. Our 

 gardens are entirely ruined. From the oats we may save enough straw for the horses, 

 but everything in the gardens and in t'ae fields of the Indians is totally consumed. 

 The whole work of the season was destroyed in less than eight hours over a country of 

 three hundred acres.'" — {^Yankton Press, August 30, 1871. 



In a letter from Libarty, Dak., a storm is reported. Some oat-fields out of range of 

 the storm are badly damaged by the native grasshopper (large yellow). They eat off 

 the kernels until the ground is covered. During several days of the past week the air 

 has been filled with those pests, which but a few years since were such a terror to the 

 farmer of the Northwest. They appeared to be making their way due south, and will 

 jjrobably bring up somewhere in our sister State of Nebraska. A few of them, weary 

 of their pilgrimage, dropped down upon our people in certain localities; but from all 

 we can learn, Dakota has little to fear from these unwelcome visitors the present 

 season. If they must visit Dakota, a flying visit, like the present one, will suit our 

 people best. — lYankton Press, August 7, 1872. 



H. Beardshear, living in Dixo) County, Nebraska, says that the grasshoppers ap- 

 peared near Pouca on Friday, and were committing fearful ravages. He noticed fields 

 of oats and corn perfectly black wifeh them, they being so thick as to bend the oat- 

 Btalks to the ground. They seemed to be devastating a strip of country about sixteen 

 miles in width, and appeared to be working in a westerly direction.— [ASiottx City 

 Journal, 1872. 



The latest news from all parts of the Territory convey the happy intelligence that 

 the grasshoppers have departed for parts unknown. The damage done by these un- 

 welcome visitors has been but small^ and it is sincerely to be hoped that th s is an end 

 of the big grasshopper ecare. The grasshoppers gave Sioux Falls the cut direct — 

 didn't even make that point a way-station. — \_Yankion Press, August 14, 1872. 



The grasshoppers have not all left Dakota; we have them here, though not so many 

 of them as have visited some of the adjacent counties, and they have not done much 

 injury to the corn so far. — [Letter from Hutchinson County, August 22, 1872. 



From Union County, August 24, the news comes that the grasshoppers had injured 

 crops but very little, and finer fields of wheat and oats than those which grace the 

 farms of Union County are never seen except in imagination. — [ Yankton Press, Sep- 

 tember 4, 1872. 



MONTANA. 



Fort Peck, Mont., June 30, 1877. 



Sir: Your circular in regard to the Rocky Mountain locusts was received some days 

 ago, and I have been hesitating about asi answer, because I do not feel competent to 

 communicate anything of scientific value. I am not a naturalist, and have never 

 given the habits of the 'hoj^pers any consideration. 



1. I recall arrivals at Standing Rock, Dak., in 1875, and at Fort Randall, Dak., in 

 1876, in the afternoon. In 1874, in Southwestern Minnesota, saw a wheat-field at- 

 tacked and swept away in the forenoon, but did not inquire the time of the arrival of 

 the pest in that vicinity. This was early in July, or before the middle of the month, 

 -a. Direction of wind not noted, or not remembered, h. Weather generally, if not in- 

 variably, warm and clear, c. Generally, if not invariably, with the wind. Height 

 and density various. Sometimes invisible to the natural eye except when viewed nearly 

 in the direction of the sun, when the volume seemed of great depth and density, and 

 ^continued for many hours undiminished ; also much nearer the surface of the earth, 

 presenting, in the distance, the appearance of the smoke of immense prairie-fires, and 



