. 10 



After leaving Galveston I visited various localities surrounding the immediate re- 

 gion infested to ascertain the exact area over which the locusts had hatched in inju- 

 rious numbers, thereby anticipating your orders of April 29, which reached me at 

 Austin on the 5th of May. From Austin I returned to the plantation of Mr. Flew- 

 ellen in order to ascertain how the warfare was progressing in that neighborhood, 

 and what the prospects were for the production of a crop this year. Upon my arrival 

 I found a decided reduction in the number of hoppers, and a correspondingly brighter 

 and more hopeful feeling among the planters of the stricken area. I also learned of 

 another locust that appeared to be increasing very rapidly among the forests of post 

 oak lying between the towns of Washington and Brenham. This very likely will prove 

 to be an undescribed species, belonging somewhere between the genera MeJanoplus 

 and Acridinm. 



After sperding several days in this locality, I returned to my home at West Point, 

 where I arrived on the 14th of the month. 

 Very respectfully, 



LAWRENCE BRUNER. 



Prof. C. Y. Riley, 



U. S. Entomologist, Washington, D. C. 



I visited the region indicated in Dr. Flewellen's letter of March 22 r 

 arriving there on the evening of April 21, to find that the young had 

 already hatched and were then nearly or quite three weeks old. Upon 

 examination but few of these were found scattered over the cultivated 

 fields, while the majority of them were still confined to the weed patches 

 at the outer edges in ravines, along "turn rows" and in fence corners. 

 That evening, after a short consultation with the neighboring planters, 

 it was decided that immediate warfare begin, as no time should be lost 

 if advantage was to be taken of the position which the enemy occupied.. 

 Accordingly, early the following morning, a team was dispatched to town 

 for poisons and other munitions of war. While some present favored 

 poisoning, others opposed this mode of warfare as dangerous and im- 

 practicable; but, as they could suggest no substitute, it was finally 

 agreed that poisoning should be tried. This was agreed upon chiefly 

 because all were supplied with the apparatus necessary for its applica- 

 tion, and were accustomed to its use in fighting the Cotton Worm (Aletia 

 xylina). I also proposed the use of coal tar and kerosene pans, and 

 ordered the material for the construction of a trial machine. The fol- 

 lowing morning we started out over the plantation of Major Flewellen 

 on a tour of inspection, only to find the majority of the eggs already 

 hatched and the young locusts in their second and third stages. After 

 digging for several hours and finding but a couple of unhatched eggs 

 and no egg parasites, it was decided to devote the future to the destruc- 

 tion of the larva3 before they began spreading over the crops, notwith- 

 standing the fact that you wished me especially to devote much of my 

 time in digging for egg parasites. 



By careful inquiry from old citizens I learned that ever since the war- 

 times grasshoppers have occasionally appeared in unusual numbers at 

 isolated localities throughout portions of Central Texas, and especially 

 in the immediate neighborhood at present overrun. When this was 



