1881.] Entomology. 1013 
Phylloxera and many other insects in sand, prove conclusively 
that it is more difficult for such small, soft-bodied insects to make 
headway or to exist in sandy soil, not only because of the mechan- 
ical action of the particles adhering to all parts of the body, but 
because of the mobility of these particles and the absence of 
cracks, interstices and galleries which are formed in loamy or 
clayey soil, either by the penetration of roots, the effects of con- 
traction during drought, or the action of the insects themselves.— 
C. V. Riley in Farmers’ Review. 
Locusts 1n THE West.—Mr. Uriah Bruner wrote us in Sep- 
tember from the region of Denver, Colorado, that a few speci- 
mens of Caloptenus spretus were observed through that part of 
the country, but that they attracted no particular attention. The 
Clifton (Kansas) Review reports that they were seen flying south- 
ward over that town the last week of August, while other reports 
show that, just as we predicted would be the case, the pest was 
generally scarce in the West and did no damage. It was some- 
what different on the Pacific coast. The Pacific migratory species 
(Camnula pellucida) was reported from Fresno as having been 
very thick on the plains and as doing much damage to vegetation 
about the middle of July, and we clip the following from the Pacific 
Rural Press of August 27th: 
‘‘ For the past three years this section has been afflicted by the grasshoppers. _ As 
a consequence the farmers have lost all their crops and got heavily in debt. From 
affluence several have been reduced to poverty. Last year the pestiferous insects laid 
immense num of eggs—in fact the earth was alive with them, and the outlook 
was very bad for this year, and many did not plant, preferring to let their land lie 
e 
way in clouds across the Sierras toward California. Only a few are left behind and 
po ney 
a 
e 
nesses and perish miserably. If our California friends find them ns 
their fields, they may expect to see desolation and ruin left in their track.”—Reno 
Journal. 
Locusts were also very destructive this year in many parts of 
South America, and we have had several requests from that quar- 
ter for the publications of the U. S. Entomological Commission 
In Europe, judging from reports, Turkey seems to have been 
overrun by what is evidently the common migratoria, the whole 
population of Smyrna being employed to combat them, At An- 
gora, report says, “all business was suspended for three days by 
order of the Governor General, and all the inhabitants were or- 
dered to march out into the fields to destroy the grasshoppers. 
_ Every inhabitant was compelled to deliver twenty oka (about fifty- 
six pounds) of dead locusts to the officials.” The swarms are 
Said to emanate principally from Persia. 
STRUCTURE OF THE CLAW IN Psocina.—Dr. H. A. Hagen ae 
Psyche for April, 1881, the first part of a paper entitled “Some = 
in 
