206 The Rocky Mountain Locust. 



Toward the end of July the unfledged insects did an 

 immense amount of damage to the cotton and other crops 

 of Georgia and South Carolina. The papers were full of 

 graphic accounts of their destruction, and not only did 

 editors very generally take for granted that they had to do 

 with the western spretus, but Mr. T. P. Janes, Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture for Georgia, in his circular No. 27, 

 supposed they were the same. Specimens which he subse- 

 quently sent me, however, at once revealed their true 

 character. 



The damage done by some of the more common locusts 

 that occur over the country, is, let me repeat, sometimes 

 very great, especially during hot, dry years. In some of 

 the New England States their ravages have, in restricted 

 localities, fairly equaled those of the voracious spretus of 

 the West. But while a few of them, in exceptional circum- 

 stances, develop the migratory habit, they never have, and 

 in all probability never will, compare with Caloptenus 

 spretus in the vastness of its migrations and in its immense 

 power for injury over extensive areas. 



Whenever we hear of locust flights east of the Missis- 

 sippi, we may rest satisfied that they are not of our Rocky 

 Mountain pest, and are comparatively harmless. 



