NEW YORK 8 TATE MUSEUM 



within this limit, of the character of the breeding grounds of the M. 

 spretus, the sparse vegetation of which compels the immense broods to 

 take flight as soon as winged, often for hundreds of miles into adjoin- 

 ing States in search of food. 



Destructive Locusts of the Eastern United States. 



Our two most common species are the Melanoplus femur -rubrum 

 (DeGeer) and Melanoplus atlanis (Riley) — each having a wide range, 

 extending from Florida into British America and occurring on the 

 Pacific coast. Of the two, the former, known to many under the com- 

 mon name of the " red-legged grasshopper" — is the more frequently 

 met with while feeding in our pastures and meadows; the latter, M. 

 atlanis, which has been designated by Dr. Riley as "the lesser migra- 

 tory locust," is, at times and in localities, the more destructive, for, as 

 indicated in its popular name, when so abundant as to have devoured 

 everything edible, it takes wing and flies for miles to new feeding- 

 grounds. It has been particularly abundant and destructive in the 

 New England States. Dr. Harris, in his Treatise on the Insects of 

 New England, records of what was undoubtedly this species: " At 

 times, particularly before their final disappearance, they collect in 

 clouds, rise high in the atmosphere, and take extensive flights. I was 

 authentically informed that some persons employed in raising the 

 steeple of the church at Williamstown were, while standing near the 

 vane, covered by them, and saw, at the same time, vast swarms of 

 them flying over their heads." In Williamson's History of Maine, 

 quoted by Dr. Harris, it is stated: "In 1743 and 1 756 they covered 

 the whole country, and threatened to devour everything green. Indeed, 

 so great was the alarm they occasioned among the people that days of 

 fasting and prayer were appointed." 



In recent times they have committed great ravages in the Merrimac 

 valley in New Hampshire, during the years 1872-1885, and again in 

 1889, when sixty bushels of the grasshoppers were collected and 

 destroyed from one oat field of three and a half acres, under the stimu- 

 lus of a State bounty of $1 per bushel. In collecting them, the sheet- 

 iron coal-oil pan, known as the " hopperdozer," employed in the West- 

 ern States against the Rocky Mountain locust, was used. 



So serious were the losses sustained that the farmers of the Merrimac 

 valley made application to the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture at Washington for such aid as might bring them relief. Dr. 

 Riley was commissioned to make examination, and ascertain what 

 could be done in practically dealing with the pest. His report was 



