LOCUST RAVAGES IN CALIFORNIA. 
255 
These observations may lead to the conclusion that early life here, as in most in- 
stances, is very tenacious, and is carefully guarded by nature. Such is the force with 
which the atrocious villain presses in its mantle or pellicle — a writhing maggot — that 
plowing under, to be effectual, must be deep and thorough. 
Harrowing the eggs to the surface in autumn, with the Rocky Mountain locust, is 
said to be very effective. Tho females deposit with the eggs a sebific or waxy sub- 
stance that keeps the eggs in place, suitable for hatching. Brought to the surface, 
they are exposed to the rigors of winter, and to the attacks of birds ; and in our val- 
ley, with its regular spring freshets, they would be floated off into the sloughs, feed- 
ing the trout, The eggs that survive all these conditions would become addled, or at 
least the insect would be too weak when hatched to be feared. 
THE RED OR LOCUST MITE. 
In the pan of earth and locust eggs there happened to be eggs of the red mite (the 
Tromlidium locustarum Riley), and I have a full-grown female under thin glass for mi- 
croscopic study. My specimen is 6 hundredths of an inch long, about the size of a 
flea. It was very fortunate to find this locust pest accompanying our species as it 
does the spretus. In some sections of the interior the abandonment of the country by 
locusts is charged entirely to the attack of this parasite. They often teem until the 
ground is tinged a bright scarlet color. It preys upon both eggs and mature insects. 
On the full-grown insect they fasten beneath the wings, suck the locust to a dry shell, 
then drop to earth to undergo transformation peculiar to the species. 
Instinctively the fear of this red or locust mite is conveyed from parent to child, 
for a region once infested by it the locusts avoid for years after. This is one of the 
most singular phenomena connected with the locust problem, to wit, how the young- 
swarms from abroad know that a certain section in advance of them is infested by 
their deadly enemy. They turn from such country with evident fear. Borne along 
by the wind, perhaps, as they approach the vicinity of the mites, they face about in 
a mass, or if the wind is too strong they drop and crawl hastily back in mortal fear' 
and tumult, without feeding. 
Some such " check" is sure to arrive in time to drive off or destroy our foe. So let 
the farmer take courage. The most disconsolate appearances at the East have been 
changed to rescue and safety in a single night by these "checks," adroitly brought in 
by old mother Nature, kind at last to all, if we but give her time to complete the 
cycles of her mysterious progress. In proof of this it may be cited that the locust-smit- 
ten localities of the interior are really the most prosperous in the Union. The locusts 
eat up certain noxious weeds, and the most abundant harvests follow their ravages of 
the year before. But there is this difference — the spretus never flourishes, from various 
causes, more than a year at a time in one place, being an emigrant from the Rockies; 
ours, the atrox, is indigenous here. Favoring circumstances have multiplied them, so 
that they moved slowly, year by year, along in search of food. May the powers of 
earth and air, birds, insects, and protozoa, the devices of man, and the love and skill 
of nature, speedily conspire to check this terrible, atrocious locust ! 
Wednesday, April 9, 1879. 
Have just been over a locust patch of eggs on the ranch of B. F. Lemmon, and was 
pleased to find the "red locust mite" in abundance. It was running over the ground 
only in the vicinity of the eggs, and thus leads the searcher for eggs at once to their 
locality. This parasite is now in its mature state, is often so large as to be distinctly 
noticed, and is commonly called the " red spider." It seeks out the locust eggs, de- 
posits its own therein, besides eating freely ; then, as the young locust hatches, it is 
menaced by the larval forms of this louse until the end of the season. 
It is hoped that this auxiliary aid, thus brought in by nature, will be efficacious in 
averting the scourge. 
The dreadful locust ravages and their menaces in future are still the all-absorbing 
