10 
After leaving Galveston I visited various localities surrounding the immediate re- 
gion infested to ascertain the exact area over which the locusts had hatched in inju- 
rious numbers, thereby anticipating your orders of April 29, which reached me at 
Austin on the 5th of May. From Austin I returned to the plantation of Mr. Flew- 
ellen in order to ascertain how the warfare was progressing in that neighborhood, 
and what the prospects were for the production of a crop this year. Upon inv arrival 
I found a decided reduction in the number of hoppers, and a correspondingly brighter 
and more hopeful feeling among the planters of the stricken area. I also learned of 
another locust that appeared to be increasing very rapidly among the forests of post 
oak lying between the towns of Washington and Brenham. This very likely will prove 
to be an undescribed species, belonging somewhere between the genera Melanoplus 
and Acridium. 
After spending several days in this locality, I returned to my home at West Point, 
where I arrived on the 14th of the month. 
V ery respectfully, 
LAWRENCE BRUNER. 
Prof. C. Y. Riley, 
U. S. Entomologist, Washington, D. C. 
I visited the region indicated in Dr. Flewellen 7 s letter of March 22, 
arriving there on the evening of April 21, to find that the young had 
already hatched and were then nearly or quite three weeks old.* Upon 
examination but few of these were found scattered over the cultivated 
fields, while the majority of them were still confined to the weed patches 
at the outer edges in ravines, along “turn rows 77 and in fence corners. 
That evening, after a short consultation with the neighboring planters, 
it was decided that immediate warfare begin, as no time should be lost 
if advantage was to be taken of the position which the enemy occupied. 
Accordingly, early the following morning, a team was dispatched to town 
for poisons and other munitions of war. While some present favored 
poisoning, others opposed this mode of warfare as dangerous and im- 
practicable; but, as they could suggest no substitute, it was finally 
agreed that poisoning should be tried. This was agreed upon chiefly 
because all were supplied with the apparatus necessary for its applica- 
tion, and were accustomed to its use in fighting the Cotton Worm ( Aletia 
xylina). I also proposed the use of coal tar and kerosene pans, and 
ordered the material for the construction of a trial machine. The fol- 
lowing morning we started out over the plantation of Major Flewellen 
on a tour of inspection, only to find the majority of the eggs already 
hatched and the young locusts in their second and third stages. After 
digging for several hours and finding but a couple of unhatched eggs 
and no egg parasites, it was decided to devote the future to the destruc- 
tion of the larvae before they began spreading over the crops, notwith- 
standing the fact that you wished me especially to devote much of my 
time in digging for egg parasites. 
By careful inquiry from old citizens I learned that ever since the war- 
times grasshoppers have occasionally appeared in unusual numbers at 
isolated localities throughout portions of Central Texas, and especially 
in the immediate neighborhood at present overrun. When this was 
