SOME MISCELLANEOUS RESULTS OF THE 

 WORK OF THE DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



v. 



THE DIFFERENTIAL GRASSHOPPER IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA- 

 OTHER COMMON SPECIES. 



By H. A. Morgan. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The differential grasshopper has been known to occur in the Upper 

 Mississippi Valley for many years, but its appearance in devastating 

 numbers as far south as the State of Mississippi is of recent date. In 

 1890 and 1891 crevasses occurred on the east side of the Mississippi 

 River between Rolling Fork and Coahoma, Miss. Plantations in this 

 delta region around Hampton Station, on the Riverside Division of the 

 Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, were inundated, and for a few 

 years following grasshoppers appeared in destructive numbers; "Lin- 

 den,' 1 "Glen Willow," and "Richland" plantations suffering the most. 

 Though these attacks were more or less local and no urgent complaints 

 were heard, the outbreak following an overflow of 1897 was attended 

 by more serious and widespread injury. The results of an investiga- 

 tion of this latter outbreak, made during 1899 and 1900, are discussed 

 in this article. 



In Bolivar County, Miss., is located the famous Dahomy property 

 (19,000 acres), which is perhaps the largest cotton plantation in the 

 South. Upon this property, about 1 mile east of the Yazoo and Mis- 

 sissippi Valley Railroad, a basin consisting of about 300 acres exists. 

 After the, crevasse water of 1897 receded this basin remained flooded. 

 The crevasses opening as late as the 28th and 30th of March and the 

 water remaining upon the property for at least six weeks so delayed 

 planting that no attempt was made to include the basin in the cultiva- 

 tion of 1897. It became a forest of weeds and a most favorable feed- 

 ing and breeding ground for so sturdy and prolific a species of grass- 

 hopper as the differential. The spring of 1898 was favorable for early 

 planting, and the basin, with the rest of the property, was ploughed, 



