92 



The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



It is generally supposed that evergreens escape the 

 ravages of the young insects, but wherever these are abun- 

 dant, hemlock, arbor vitae, the different pines, and espe- 

 cially the Norway spruce, for which they show a predi- 

 lection, are stripped. The red cedar more often escapes. 

 Wild prairie grass, especially that which is low, is eaten 

 down less closely than other grasses, and oats more often 

 escape than other cereals. Blue grass is sometimes killed 

 out, but more generally not, and young corn is eaten down 

 so often and so deeply into the ground that it is frequently 

 destroyed. Potatoes are not killed by being eaten down, 

 and generally make a crop after the insects leave, without 

 replanting. This is especially the case when they are plant- 

 ed deep, and where the vines as they grow are at first kept 

 covered with earth, which they can be with impunity. The 

 blossoms and stems of peas are left after the leaves are 

 stripped, and parsnips sometimes remain untouched. All 

 other vegetables are swept off. Of wild plants, Milkweed, 

 (Asclepias) and Dogbane (Apocymim) are little to their 

 taste, and are taken only when all else is destroyed ; an 

 occasional Salvia trichostemmoides and Vernonia novce- 

 boracensis will also be left in the general ruin ; but the 

 plant of all others that enjoys immunity from the omniv- 

 orous creatures is the Amarantus JBlitum, a low, creeping, 

 glossy-leaved herb, lately introduced into Missouri. I 

 found this plant unmolested even where the insects were 

 so hard pushed for food that they were feeding on each 

 other and on dead leaves, the bark of trees, lint of fences, 

 etc., and where they were so thick hiding amid its leaves 

 that fifty to a hundred occurred to the square foot. The 

 immunity of the plant is the more remarkable since the 

 other species of the genus do not escape. 



The dislike of locusts for Leguminous plants is very 

 general, and, as Mr. G. M. Dawson, of Montreal, Canada, 



