REPORT OK NEBRASKA INSECTS. 
By Lawrence Bruner, (Special Agent. 
This has been an unusually favorable year in Nebraska and adjoining 
States for the ravages of certain injurious insects. The spring was a 
little backward, rather drier than usual, and warm, suitable for the 
development of all kinds of our most destructive species. The summer 
was a hot and uncommonly dry one, killing off the parasites, while con- 
tinuing favorable to most of the species causing injury to crops. 
Among the species noticed to be injurious the following were chief: 
The Red-legged Locust (Melanoplus femur -rubrum), the Differential Lo- 
cust (ill. differ entialis), Chinch Bug ( Micropus leucopterus ), the Striped 
Cottonwood Beetle ( Plagiodera scripta ), the Ash Saw-fly, the Colorado 
Potato Beetle ( Doryphora 10 -lineata), the Gray Blister Beetle ( Lytta 
cinereus ), the Corn Worm ( Heliothis armigera ), and the larvae of the Asli 
Saw-fly, and early in the season the Box-elder Plant Louse. 
Notwithstanding the ravages of all these insects in connection with 
a very dry summer, our crops have fallen but little below the average 
year, and at the present time everything appears in first rate condi- 
tion. 
As would naturally be supposed, from data received last year, locusts 
are again on the iucrease at various points both southward and north- 
ward. During the months of April and May I visited, under your in- 
structions, central Texas, where several species of these insects had be- 
come so numerous as to endanger the crops in that particular locality. 
Upon these I reported at the time. We have since learned that crop 
prospects iu that portion of the State were good, and that the locusts 
were diminishing in numbers. On the other hand, in Montana and 
northwestern Dakota, advices stated that the Rocky Mountain Locust 
(Melanoplus sprctus ) with several other species, were even more numer- 
ous than they were in these places last year. This being a new and 
sparsely settled country it has been very difficnlt to obtain reliable data 
as to their numbers, movements, and injuries, if any. 
Judgiugfrom occasional newspaper reports during the season it is 
quite evident to my mind that scattering swarms of locusts have reached 
eastward at least as far as the James River, along the line of the North" 
eru Pacific Railway, and southward of* this point probably 75 or 100 
miles. These swarms have certainly left their eggs scattered over the 
country passed through while migrating, and will evidently be heard 
17523— No. 13 3 33 
