EoEBUCK : Locusts in Yorkshire. 



137 



1864. 



In September locusts appeared in great numbers on the coast of 

 Cornwall, and several of them which were in the possession of Mr. F. 

 Walker he named Pachytylus migratorhis (F. Walker in Newman^s 

 Insect-hunter's Year Book for 1869, p. 17). 



The years 1865, 6, 7, and 8 are also blank years as regards locusts. 



1869. 



The visitation of 1869 is especially remarkable on account of the 

 species being Acridium peregrimm, Oliv., new to the European fauna, 

 and very different from either of the two closely allied species which 

 usually favor us with visits, and also on account of the distribution 

 also being opposite in its tendency. Instead of abounding on the 

 east coast, the centre of distribution of Acrydium peregrinmn was 

 Cornwall, where specimens occurred at Truro, Looe, St. Austell, and 

 all along the coast from Plymouth to Penzance in great numbers, 

 some reports mentioning 30 or so being captured at once. From 

 Cornwall the swarm spread northwards and eastwards, occurring in 

 Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Derbyshire, Staffordshire, and Not- 

 tinghamshire, and near Birmingham. A specimen also occurred at 

 Waterford, in the south east coast of Ireland. At Burton-on-Trent 

 several occurred ; here they fell under the notice of Mr. Edwin 

 Brown, who took some pains to investigate the occurrence. The 

 species is widely spread through North Africa and East Asia, and in 

 some parts excessively abundant and very destructive. Previously to 

 this year it had never occurred in any part of Europe, nor did it even 

 then occur on the continent, though Mr. Brown endeavoured to 

 ascertain, through the medium of a French entomological periodical 

 of wide circulation, whether they had been noticed in Western 

 Europe at the same time as in England. 



Considering these facts, and also that it is inconceivable that the 

 species could have crossed the western portion of Europe without 

 attracting the notice of Italian, Spanish, or French entomologists, 

 Mr. Brown suggested a probable line of migration, which appears to 

 be justified by our knowledge of the facts of the case. He suggested 

 that a large flight had set out from the north-western coast of Africa, 

 and having been caught by the south-easterly winds, had been mostly 

 destroyed far out at sea ; and that, owing probably to a westerly 

 cliange of the wind, or to the survival of the fittest, the remnant had 

 gained our Cornish coast, from thepce dispersing themselves over the 

 south-west moiety of England in a sparing manner (Brown, E. M. M. 

 June, 1870, vii., 1-3.) 



(To he continued. ) 



