38 



TTie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



were destructive east of Nemaha county, Kansas; but the 

 injury that year was trifling, and the records show that 

 the insects became more and more impotent. 



During this year, 1869, and the two following years, as 

 will be seen from what is said in Chapter IX, many of the 

 common locusts of the country were unusually numerous 

 and destructive ; and the reports of their injuries must 

 not be confounded with those of the Rocky Mountain spe- 

 cies. Mr. Cyrus Thomas (Am. Ent. II, p. 82,) reports 

 finding this species, in June, 1869, around St. Joseph, Mo. 

 He says : " We arrived very early in the morning, and 

 then they appeared to be somewhat torpid ; yet when 

 those in the grass were disturbed by the hogs, which were 

 feeding upon them, they hopped about quite briskly. 

 Swarms of them, as I was informed, had been flying over 

 that section for a week previous to our arrival." 



In 18*70, what was probably this last species, swept down 

 upon the country around Algona, Iowa, and in 1871 

 the progeny " hatched by myriads till after the first of 

 June," and left about the first of July.* During this year 

 their injuries were also reported in parts of Utah and 

 Colorado. 



In 1872 again they did some harm in parts of Kansas, 

 for Mr. Albert Cooper, of Beloit, Kan., wrote me (Sept. 1, 

 1872): "They came down upon us a few days ago, and 

 are now eating up everything green." Mr. J. D. Putnam, 

 who spent the summer of 1872 in the Rocky Mountains, 

 also wrote me " that spretus was quite numerous in the 

 valley of the' Troublesome River." 



THE INVASION OF 1873. 



During the years 1873 and 1874, we had a repetition, in a 

 great measure, of the years 1866 and 1867. The invasion 



* Western Rural, Chicago, September 26, 1874. 



