30 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



lence.* Numerous, indeed, are the accounts of general 

 devastation, pestilence and famine that have frequently 

 followed in the wake of these locusts in the East, and 

 travelers in South Africa, Asia and South Europe, have 

 left us abundant records of the fearful devastations of this 

 " Army of the Great God,'' as the Arabs term these migrat- 

 ing hosts. Their history is one of dire calamity and deso- 

 lation ; and their devastations have become part of the 

 history of nations : they have even been perpetuated in 

 coins. Those who have the curiosity to acquaint them- 

 selves with the history of locusts in the more ancient parts 

 of the world, can not do better than refer to Kirby and 

 Spence,f or to the compilation published in this country 

 by Frank Cowan.J It suffices here to state that the inju- 

 ries by locusts in the desert countries bordering mountain 

 ranges in the East, are by no means matters of past his- 

 tory only, but that they are felt occasionally at the pres- 

 ent time as they have been for all time past. In 1866, 

 during the same year as our previous great invasion, Alge- 

 ria and the whole country in the north of Africa, was 

 severely visited, causing the famine of 1867, and the epi- 

 demics which followed. In 1874, these insects caused 

 serious alarm in the same parts of Africa ; -and M. H. 

 Brocard tells us that in the three subdivisions of Constan- 

 tine, SetifF and Batna, 4,820 hectolitres (about 14,000 bush- 

 els) of eggs were collected.§ Every year since, they have 

 done serious injury in parts of Europe, and this very year 

 (1877) reports of fearful destruction come from Tripoli 

 and Barbary. The species most conspicuous in its devas- 

 tations, especially in Central Europe, is the Migratory 



* Oros, Contra Pag. 1, V, c, 2. 



t Introduction to Ent. I, Letter VII, London, 1828. 



X Curious History of Insects, pp. 101—131, Phila., 1875. 



§ Comptes Eendus, Paris Academy, Jan. 25, 1875. 



