i8 
The: Colorado Experiment Station 
sufficient rapidity to cause the destruction of a large number of 
locusts. 
Fig. 5.—Grasshoppers killed by the grasshopper disease, Empusa grvlli 
Fres. Note how they cling in clusters at the top of the dead grass. 
Several years ago the so-called “South African grasshopper 
fungus’’ was distributed to a large number of farmers in the State 
for trial against grasshoppers, and several very favorable reports 
were received, but the attempts at this Station to inoculate grass¬ 
hoppers and spread the disease were an utter failure, both in the 
breeding-cage where the conditions of heat and moisture could be 
controlled, and in the fields. In no instance was any substantial 
evidence found that a single hopper had been killed by the fun¬ 
gus. It was decided that in every case reported, the hoppers were 
killed by the disease Empusa grylli, first mentioned above, or by 
parasites, and not at all by the fungus that was distributed. 
A very striking peculiarity of Empusa grylli Fres. is, that it 
causes the hoppers to climb to the tops of the stems of alfalfa, 
