14 



show signs of vigorous attack, and the march of destruction com- 

 mences. The rather rare occurrence of more grasshoppers, even in 

 the adult condition, upon and near the ditch banks seems to be 

 explained in the commingled instinct of the young to hunt the retire- 

 ment and seclusion of the nesting or egg-laying areas, and of the adult 

 to seek, and survey beforehand, suitable places for oviposition. A 

 few hours before molting the grasshoppers tend to congregate and 

 become sluggish. Ecdysis (molting) varies as to time, and slightly 

 as to manner, with diiferent stages. In the early stadia less time is 

 required, and the operation takes place upon the ground or upon low 

 bunches of grass and weeds. Every effort of the grasshoppers at this 

 time seems to be to avoid conspicuity, and in doing so spare them- 

 selves, in a manner, enmity of parasites. After molting of the first, 

 second, and third stages it is not long before the young grasshoppers 

 are sufficiently hardened to again begin feeding, but often the molt of 

 the fourth and fifth stages, particularly the last molt, some time is 

 required to extend the wings and dry and harden the body before 

 feeding is resumed. The last molt usually occurs upon the upper and 

 well-exposed leaves of corn and other plants upon which they may be 

 feeding, though it is not uncommon for the grasshoppers to drop to 

 the ground during the maneuvers of the process. The reason for the 

 selection of the more exposed places for the last molt is obvious. The 

 bodies are large, and rapid drying protects them from fungous diseases 

 which lurk in the more shaded and moist sections during the months 

 of June and July. 



The last prominent habit to which we call attention is that of the 

 fully grown grasshoppers to seek the shade offered by the growing 

 plants during the hottest part of the day. Upon Dahomy plantation 

 the} 7 appeared in such numbers a little before sunset as to change the 

 entire coloring of the field*. Instead of the rich green, a dishearten- 

 ing glistening bronze prevailed. 



MEANS USED TO DESTROY THE BROOD OF 1900. 



The serious loss of 1899, and the alarming increase in the number of 

 grasshoppers over 1 898, together with the startling number of eggs in 

 widely distributed egg areas, caused no little uneasiness as to the out- 

 look for 1900. Preventives and remedial operations were begun early 

 in the winter and were actively continued until it seemed that all dan- 

 ger of serious loss was past. These operations consisted in fall and 

 winter cultivation, spraying the egg beds and young grasshoppers with 

 coal oil and coal-oil emulsions, covering the ditch water with oil emul- 

 sions and driving the }^oung into the trap thus prepared, of using 

 improvised tarred sheets, and of different kinds of hopperdozers, and 

 finally to disseminate among the developing grasshoppers a disease 

 commonly known as "the South African fundus." 



