24 
as the species just spoken of, certainly can commit an equal amount of 
injury when size and numbers of the insects are taken into considera- 
tion. They can not, it is true, get up and fly away to regions new, but 
they are equally rapid breeders, with favoring conditions. They can 
be destroyed equally as well, if not better, than can the Rocky Mountain 
species, on account of their local restriction, even in the regions where 
found. 
Mr. Southwick had noticed Melanoplus femur-rubrum fiying to the 
tops of grasses towards sunset in the fields near New York City. 
Mr. Osborn had noticed the same habit. He spoke of the great diffi- 
culty of estimating the damage done by grasshoppers. Some discussion 
followed upon this point by Messrs. Southwick and Atkinson. 
Mr. Cook stated that M. femur-rubrum had been very abundant in 
Michigan for three or four years back, but that he had had no difficulty 
in estimating the damage to oats. He thought that the outlook in 
Michigan was not at all serious, and considered that perhaps Mr. 
Bruner’s prediction was too doleful. 
Mr. Bruner stated that we can not take any chances. The black 
picture is justifiable if it will make people work to destroy the insects 
and the local species have it in their power to become serious pests. 
Mr. Webster stated that femur-rubrum is the species which is doing 
the damage in Ohio. He had noticed a fungus parasite working to a 
considerable extent near Columbus. 
Mr. Smith thought that Mr. Bruner’s point that it is unsafe to predict 
comparative immunity on account of a tendency of farmers to shirk 
work was a very good one. 
Mr. Cook stated that there was another side to be considered. for if 
the entomologists predicted danger and the farmers did no work and the 
plague did not come, the entomologists would be forever discredited. 
Mr. Weed spoke of the Cotton Worm, and stated that where the 
planters were always ready with their stock of Patis green they were. 
in condition to fight the worm whenever it appeared in numbers. 
Mr. Webster thought it was always best to tell the truth and to 
frankly admit all inability to give valid predictions. 
Mr. Fletcher was of the opinion that in all probability predictions . 
can bemade more confidently in the Western country worked over by 
Mr. Bruner than in Canada and the region spoken of by Professor Cook. 
Mr. Marlatt read the following paper by Mr. Townsend: 
CHILO SACCHARALIS IN NEW MEXICO. 
By C. H. TYLER TOWNSEND, Las Cruces, N. Mex. 
On July 8,1891, I found a considerable number of stalks of young corn 
on the college farm infested with a borer. The borer enters by a hole in 
the stalk a short distance above the ground, and bores down into the root. 
it makes its burrow exactly down through the center of the stalk, and 
