116 Tlie Rocky Mountain Locust. 



The eggs of the Silky jMite, which are small, spherical 

 and pale red, are laid in the ground in a loose mass of 

 nearly 200. They become pear-shaped before hatching, 

 and the young mites are paler than the full grown individ- 

 uals and have but six legs, the hind pair being atrophied. 

 The following accounts of its work are worthy of place : 



A discovery has been made of great interest. A small red bug 

 or spider, about the size of a small kernel of wheat, is found in 

 great numbers, creeping into the holes to the grasshopper eggs and 

 eating the contents of the eggs voraciously. Great numbers were 

 found in the act of eating the eggs, with empty egg-shells in the 

 same nest. The extent of the little friends is not limited, but they 

 have been seen in many localities in different directions in this 

 place. Mr. J. D. Johnston, Antrim, proved conclusively that these 

 red bugs are making sure work among the eggs — [Madelia (Minn.) 

 Times, 1874. 



Last evening, when we reached Worthington from Lake Shetek, 

 there was quite an excitement in Worthington, owing to the fact 

 that the citizens were generally convinced that a red parasite was 

 destroying the grasshopper eggs. I examined the matter carefully 

 myself, and became convinced that the destruction of the eggs in. 

 that immediate vicinity was well assured; but I determined not to 

 write you and excite any hope until a further and more complete 

 examination could be had. We therefore furnished our Bohemian 

 friends with a bottle of the eggs and their pests, and the commis- 

 sion left in high spirits. "We postponed further investigation until 

 this morning, when I left and prosecuted the examination with 

 vigor. The farmers in the vicinity knew nothing of these signs of 

 deliverance until the visitors from Worthingron reached them, and 

 I feel safe in saying to you that in a circle of ten miles from 

 Worthington there will scarcely be an egg left by to-morrow night. 

 I send yuu a bottle herewith containing the cones and the parasites. 

 We could scarcely rind a cone or sack, except as they_ were indi- 

 cated by the parasite on the surface; and each cone, which was not 

 entirely destroyed, had from five to fifty of the red laborers at work 

 upon the eggs. We found scores of cells with no eggs left, except 

 the shells. 



***** **** *** 

 I stopped for fifteen minutes one and a half miles west of Wilder, 

 where Section Foreman Smith took me to that portion of his farm 

 where eggs were deposited. We could find none by general dig- 

 ging, but wherever we found, as we frequently did, the red parasite 

 on the surface, we found the cone beneath, with the parasite at 

 work consuming the eggs. * * * I am aware that two years 

 ago this parasite was found working upon the eggs at Madelia and 

 other places, but here we have the remedy almost as soon as the 



