438 



(Haltica ignita), and certain sweet-potato insects, including the Tortoise- 

 beetles and the Sweet-potato Saw-fly. He concludes with a consider- 

 ation of insecticides. 



Circular on the Hop Piant-Louse.— Judging from recent correspondence 

 with the Hop Dealers' Exchange in New York, and with a number of 

 prominent growers, the present year seems to be peculiarly favorable to 

 the increase of the Hop Louse, which threatens more damage than we 

 have had since 1886. We have therefore published as Circular !N"o. 2, 

 New Series, of this Division, a brief account of the life-history of the 

 insect and the best remedies to be applied the present season. This 

 circular will be sent to any hop-grower on application. 



Locust Ravages of the Present Year.— The newspapers have contained 

 many alarming accounts of ravages by locusts in different parts of the 

 Western States during the months of June and July. Accounts of 

 damage have been received from Texas, New Mexico, Kansas, Colo- 

 rado, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, 

 Michigan, and Manitoba. We have taken steps to investigate all the 

 rumors, and Mr. Bruner has been sent on a general tour of observation, 

 while Professor Osborn has been sent to Kansas and Mr. Banks to 

 Texas and New Mexico. Telegraphic correspondence with Professors 

 Snow and Popenoe, of Kansas (who have been in the field during 

 July), and with Professor Gillette, of Colorado, shows that the alarm 

 in those States is caused entirely by local species. As we learn from 

 Mr. Bruner, who has already visited the infested districts of Colorado, 

 the species which is causing the alarm in that State is, curiously 

 enough, a rather rare species known as Bissosteira longipennis. This 

 insect breeds ordinarily in the sand hills among sparse vegetation, and 

 the past two seasons of drought have conduced to its undue multiplica- 

 tion. The present season has been very wet, and the result has been 

 a great abundance of vegetation in spots ordinarily comparatively bare. 

 In order to seek more natural conditions, therefore, the locusts have 

 migrated and have taken to the roads, where they were at once noticed 

 and excited great apprehension. While occurring in roadways in enor- 

 mous numbers, very few specimens were found a few rods away in the 

 thick grass. Up to the present time no specimens of the destructive 

 species Caloptenus spretus have been received from any of our corres- 

 pondents, with the exception of a few from Larimore, North Dakota, and 

 from the neighborhood of Winnipeg. The alarming rumors, therefore^ 

 of a possible repetition the present year of the great swarms of the 

 Rocky Mountain locust which invaded the sub-permanent and tem- 

 porary regions in the years 1874 to 1876, are largely without foundation. 

 We shall be able to speak more authoritatively upon this subject after 

 Mr. Bruner's return. 



