THE WESTERN CRICKET. 
(.Anabrus simplex Hald.) 
LIFE HISTORY AND REMEDIES. 
BY C. P. GIIvBKTTe;. 
This so-called cricket, which is really a grasshopper with very 
short wings, attracted attention as an injurious insect in Colorado 
for the first time last year. The insect is not in any sense new, for 
it was here long before any white man set foot upon American soil. 
This grasshopper and its habit of marching in great armies have 
, been written about for more than 50 years.* Judging from many 
published reports, this insect occurs in greatest numbers over the 
sage brush plains and hills drained by the Snake river and by Great 
Salt Lake, in Southern Idaho, and Northern Nevada and Utah. 
The occurrence of large swarms of the “crickets” in Southwestern 
Wyoming or Northwestern Colorado is not common, to say the 
least. Where it was most numerous in Routt county the past sum¬ 
mer in the vicinity of Eddy, Dunkley and Hayden, the ranchmen 
declared that the visitation of the past two or three years in that 
region is the first in the memory of the oldest inhabitants. Such 
an unusual invasion is not likely to continue through many years. 
When the seriousness of the Routt county invasion became 
known to this office, Mr. S. A. Johnson started on an overland trip 
through the infested area to learn as much as possible of the migrat¬ 
ing habits and the past history of this insect, and the writer went 
directly to Steamboat Springs, Eddy and Dunkley to study the 
habits and possible remedies where some of the worst injuries were 
being inflicted. I was fortunate in falling into the hands of Mr. 
John A. Whetstone and Mr. W. W. Miles of Eddy, who showed me 
* Some of the more important publications upon this insect are Stansb. 
Explorations of Utah, 1852 , p. 372 ; Glover, Rep. U. S. Dep. Agr., 1871 , p. 79 ; 
Thomas,Ann. Rep. U. S. Geol. Survey of Terr.,Vol.V, p. 438 ; Bruner, Rep. U. S. 
Entomological Com., Vol. II, p. 163 , and Vol. Ill, p. 61 , and Bull. 27 , U. S. Dep. 
of Agr., Div. of Entomology, p. 31 ; Doten, Bull. 56 , Nevada Exp. Sta., Reno 
(This bulletin would be of special interest to ranchmen); Aldrich, Bull. 41 , 
Idaho Exp. Sta., Moscow; Gillette, Entomological News, Vol. XV, p. 321 
(giving breeding and egg-laying habits). 
