41 
These mitCF were repeatedly seen, both in the field and labora¬ 
tory, in the act' of sucking locust eggs; and I believe that they 
did more to check the outbreak than any other agency. 
CONDITION OF THE EGGS. 
It may be worth while to give here some of the details from 
my notes, showing the condition of the eggs in the French Grove 
region, March 22-24. In a pasture belonging to Mr. R. C. Davis, 
where the locusts had been exceedingly destructive, forty-nine egg- 
masses were found, thirty-two of which had been destroyed. In 
this field carabid larvae and red mites were abundant and the 
coarctate larvse of certain meloids were not uncommon. In a 
meadow on the same farm, where also great damage had been 
done the previous season, a single egg pod was found, the eggs 
having been destroyed. In another pasture, belonging to Mr. J. 
C. Slocum, five egg-masses were found, all of which had been in¬ 
jured. Three meloid coarctate larvfe were here taken, and several 
carabid larvae. Twenty-seven of the pods were found in a pasture 
belonging to Mr. Jacob Moore, but twenty-two of them had been 
destroyed. Carabid beetles were here abundant, and a few carabid 
larvae were seen, as were also two Epicauta or Macrobasis. 
I next examined a forty-acre meadow belonging to Mr. Geo. M. 
Moore, which had been largely destroyed by the locusts the pre¬ 
vious summer. A part of it had been plowed late in autumn, but 
I could see no difference in the per cent, of pods injured on the 
plowed and unplowed portions. Twenty-one egg masses were 
found, nine of wdiich had been destroyed. The injured remains of 
three pods, and two others in which the eggs were intact, were 
found on the farm of Mr. Wm. Andrews. Along the roadside 
various situations were examined and four masses were found, two 
of them being uninjured. 
Thus far, in the eleven situations examined there were found a total 
of one hundred and three egg-masses, seventy four (or about sev¬ 
enty-three per cent.) of which had been destroyed. This probably 
fairly represented the condition of the locust eggs throughout 
that" locality at that time, as especial pains were taken to make 
examinations in fields remote from each other, and in which the 
conditions varied. 
ABUNDANCE OF LOCUSTS IN 1886. 
The region was not visited again until June 4 and 5, 1886, when 
the country about Elmwood, French Grove, and Monica was thor¬ 
oughly examined for young locusts, which were then mostly about 
a week old. As a result they w T ere found to be everywhere ex¬ 
tremely scarce; and I did not hesitate to express the opinion that 
in all probability there would be no appreciable locust injury in 
that region during the summer of 1886. The red mites had evi¬ 
dently completed the good work begun by the carabid and meloid 
larvae, and destroyed a large proportion of the eggs yet present at 
the opening of spring. 
