22 The Destructive Locust of the West. (January, 
THE MIGRATIONS OF THE DESTRUCTIVE LOCUST 
OF THE WEST. 
BY A. S. PACKARD, JR. 
HE following remarks concerning the probable causes of the 
migrations of the western locust are extracted from a forth- 
coming report on this and other injurious insects in Prof. F. V. 
Hayden’s Annual Report of the United States Geological and 
Geographical Survey of the Territories for 1875. The facts and 
theories were in part suggested by observations made by myself 
in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, in 1875, while attached for a 
few weeks to the Survey, and in part by the reports of Prof. C. 
V. Riley, State Entomologist of Missouri, and by the statements 
of Prof. Cyrus Thomas, State Entomologist of Illinois, and Hon. 
W.N. Byers of Denver, and others. 
In dealing with this fearfully destructive insect, which has at- 
tracted so much notice from the public, and in seeking for reme- 
dies against its devastations, it is of prime importance to have a 
thorough knowledge of its breeding places, the frequency and 
extent of its migrations, and to seek for the connection between 
the direction of the winds and other meteorological phenomena, 
and the flights of the locust. 
The locust is quite or nearly as destructive in Africa, Asia, and 
Southern Europe, as in this country, but the laws of their migra- 
tions and their connection with meteorological phenomena have 
never been studied in those regions, and it remains for the United 
States, with its Weather Signal Bureau, to institute in connection 
with the scientific surveys of the West investigations regarding 
the nature of the evil, and the best means to overcome it. 
In endeavoring to trace the connection between the migrations 
of the locusts and the course of the winds at different months, 
the writer has been led into some theoretical considerations 
which seem to be supported by the facts presented in the un- 
published report, and which may be confirmed or disproved by 
future investigations. 
History of the Migrations of the Locust. — The following table, 
compiled from the reports of A. S. Taylor, the late Mr. B. D. 
Walsh, Prof. C. V. Riley, Prof. C. Thomas, Mr. G. M. Dawson, 
and the observations of Mr. W. N. Byers, will show the years 
when the locust was excessively abundant and destructive in the 
different territories and states, and also serve to roughly indicate 
the frequency and extent of the migrations of the destructive lo- 
