Indian Museum notes

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818 Ly dian Woseum Note SMTHBONIAN MST
139 NEI
ENT 3 9088 01:

Ge W. RILEY.

INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES.

ISSUED BY THE TRUSTEES,

THE LOCUSTS OF BENGAL, MADRAS,
ASSAM, AND BOMBAY.

as ZZ

Published by Authority of the Government of India, Medvenue and Agricultural Department.

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Vol. I! { No. 4.

INDIAN MUSEUM NOTES.

—_——7_7—____——_-

THE LOCUSTS OF BENGAL, MADRAS, ASSAM, AND BOMBAY.
[ With one plate. |

A report has recently been issued on the subject of Acridium pere-
grinum, which is par excellence the locust of North-Western India. In
gathering together the materials upon which this report was based, in-
formation was obtained concerning other locusts which have from time
to time proved destructive in Bengal, Madras, Assam, and Bombay. The
present report, therefore, is intended to record what has been ascertained
about these other locusts. To complete the subject, a short résumé has
been added of what is known of the chief locusts that are found in other
parts of the world.

The principal sources of information have been the reports and speci-
mens furnished by the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the
Government of India and by the Agricaltural Sections of the various
Local Governments in India, but reference has also been made to the
more important papers published in the United States, Algeria, and
Europe, on the subject of locusts.

A short preliminary sketch of a portion of this paper was submitted
in November 1889, since which date a good deal of fresh information
has accumulated. .

The writer takes this opportunity to acknowledge the help which has
been most kindly afforded by Dr. Henri de Saussure in identifying
species. |

Locusts 1n BEneat.

In Bengal, it is chiefly in the comparatively dry country to the west
that locusts appear, though occasionally flights traverse the whole of
Bengal and even penetrate into Assam, These flights are composed of
insects belonging to very different species, and there are at least three
distinct sources from which they come. In the first place, flights of
Acridium peregrinum occasionally penetrate from the North-West frontier
into Bengal. This was the case both in 1863 and 1890. An account of
what is known of these flights is given in the report on Acredium
peregrinum, Secondly, flights occasionally penetrate into Bengal from

17756 3

100 ° Indian Museum Notes. EV. “Tf.

the highiands of Southern India, and in these cases they probably
belong to some of the various species which occasionally prove destructive
to crops in the Madras and Bombay Presidencies and in the Central
Provinces'. This was probably the case with the flights of 1877 and
1878, notices of which are given below. Thirdly, flights are believed occa-
sionally to arise locally *. This is probably what happened in 1881, when
a flight invaded the Manbhoom district from hills in Hazaribagh. No
information has yet been obtained on the subject of the identity of
these local species; they may, perhaps, in some cases have belonged to
the species Acradium succinctum,

Whatever the origin of the flights, the injury done by them in Ben-
gal has never been very extensive, and no special measures have been
adopted against them. According to a report, dated 14th July 1883,
by Mr. W. H. Grimley, low-class Mahomedans and Hindoos are said to
store the locust, both for food and also in order to extract an oil believed
to be useful in the treatment of gout and rheumatism, but upon the
whole the pest is of no very great importance.

The following is an abstract of the records of the invasions of locusts
other than Acridium peregrinum in Bengal :—

In 1862 locusts visited Monghyr and did considerable damage to
the crops (Report, dated 26th June 1890, by the Commissioner of Bhagul-
pore and the Santhal Parganas). We have no clue to the identity of
this locust, except that in this, as in the following instances, the year
was not one in which 4eridium peregrinum was prevalent in its regular
breeding grounds in North-Western India; so, it is pretty certain that
_the species was not Acridium peregrinum. In 1865 locusts passed over
Manbhoom, without, however, doing serious damage to the harvest
(Hunter’s Gazetteer) ; they also appeared in this year in Durbhunga
(Mr. W. H. Grimley’s Report, dated 14th July 1883). ;

In 1873 they are said to have passed over part of the Burdwan dis-
trict (Commissioner of Burdwan’s Report, dated 28th April 1890). In
1877 they visited Monghyr and did considerable damage to the crops
(Commissioner of Bhagulpore and theSanthal Parganas’ Report, dated 26th
June 1890) ; a flight was also observed in this year in the neighbourhood
of Patna (Mr. Scott’s Note), and a specimen obtained from it on Ist July

1 The chief of these species are said to be Acridium succinctum, Pachytylus ciner-
_ascens, Acridium aeruginosum, Acridium melanocorne, Tryxalis turrita, Hieroglyphus
furcifer, Caloptenus erubescens, Caloptenus eruginosus, Cyrtacanthacris ranacea, Oxya
furcifera, Euprepocnemis bramina, Oxya velow, and Chrotogonus sp.

2 With regard to the origin of locusts in the Durbhunga district, the Commissioner
of Patna reported (16th July 18Y0) that the swarms were said to come from the Darjeeling
Hills, though some authorities were of opinion that they breed in the large tract of grass
jungles that fringe the river Ganges. The supposed inability of these local species to cross
any large body of water is noticed in this report,

No. 4] Locusts. 101

1877 bv Mr, Scott has recently been identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure
as closely allied to the species Acridium suceinctum. In 1878 locusts
which had probably strayed from the flights then prevalent in the
Madras Presidency, appeared in the Patkour subdivision of the Santhal
Parganas from the south, but did not alight (Commissioner of Bhagul-
pore and the Santhal Parganas’ Report, dated 26th June 1890). They
also appeared in small numbers in Orissa, but did no appreciable damage
(Babu C. N. Ghose’s Report, dated 20th February 1890), and passed over
Chumparan (Mr. W. H. Grimley’s Report, dated 14th July 1883). In
1881 a flight of local origin appeared in Manbhoom and did some slight
injury. The following is an extract from a report, dated 14th July 1883,
by Mr. W. H. Grimley on the subject :—

“The subdivisional officer of Gobindpore, in the district of Manbhoom, reports
that in June 1881 a swarm of locusts visited the subdivision, extending over an area
about ten by five miles, and about a quarter of a mile high. They are said to have
emerged partly from the Lagoo Pahar, and partly from the Paresnath hill, in the
_ Hazaribagh district. Considerable numbers alighted on the young dhan seedlings,
Indian-com and gondlee, which had just sprouted, and destroyed them. Much
damage is said to have been caused by the insects, but they did not stay for more than
four or five hours.” . . . . The insects were “about four inches long w‘th
heads and wings of a red colour. A large number were destroyed by the people, and
some were eaten up by the kites and crows, also by low-caste aborigines. They are
said to possess the flavour of shrimps or lobsters.”’

Locusts In Mapras.

Both in 1889 and 1890 flights of Acridium peregrinum from North-
Western India penetrated into the Madras Presidency, and did slight
damage over considerable areas ; generally speaking, however, the locusts,
which occasionally prove destructive to crops in Madras, are of more
local origin. There does not appear to be any one species which is
~ invariably complained of, but in years of drought numerous species,
which are ordinarily present in small numbers, multiply so as to injure
the crops, some of them, however, being much more destructive than
others. An account of what has been ascertained about the flights of
Acridium peregrinum, which penetrated into the Madras Presidency in
1889 and 1890, has been given in the report on that species. The follow-
ing is a summary of what is known of the other species of locusts that
have proved injurious in the Madras Presidency :—

In 1866, a year of scarcity, locusts appeared in one of the villages
of the Chingleput district, in the Madras Presidency, and did some
damage (Mr. W. R. Robertson’s Report, dated 23rd April 1883). No
information has been obtained as to the identity of this insect.

In 1878, the last year of the great South Indian famine, locusts
invaded the whole of the Madras Presidency, not generally doing a great
amount of injury, though in some cases the injury was sufficient seriously

t

102 Indian Museum Notes. (Vol. UO.

to increase the distress caused by the famine. The young locusts hegan to
appear in January, and were found in great numbers in different districts
from that date on till September and October, the earlier swarms being
found in the west and south of the Presidency, and the later ones in
the north and east, The winged locusts were first observed in the end
of March and beginning of April in the south-west (Wynaad and
Nilgiris), and they afterwards spread over the Presidency to the east and
north, not finally disappearing in the north-east until about November
and December. They were supposed, at the time, to have originated
locally in hills and waste lands in different parts of the Presidency. The
evidence, however, seems rather to point to the locusts having started, in
the early part of the year, from the Wynaad and Nilgiri Hills, in the
south-west, and thence to have worked their way, with the prevailing
wind, over the Presidency to the north and east, occasionally stopping to
feed or to deposit their eggs in the ground; for it is otherwise difficult
to account for the fact of their appearing so much earlier in the south-
west than in the north-east, Little is known of the life-history of the
insects, but it may be noticed that locusts were observed pairing in the
Salem district in the latter part of June, and also that the you ng locusts,
which were found in the early part of May in the Udamalpet taluq were
supposed to be the offspring of the large flights of winged locusts which
had appeared in the preceding February in the same talug. The connection
between the autumn broods of young locusts and those which appeared
in the early part of the year has not been made out satisfactorily.

Of the measures adopted against these locusts, the most successful
seem to have been;—the destruction of the swarms of young wingless
locusts by driving them into lines of burning straw; the preventing the
flights of winged locusts from settling in the fields by lighting fires,
beating drums, and waving branches and cloths in the air, as soon as a
flight appeared ; and the driving of the winged locusts out of the fields,
when they had already alighted, by beating through the crops. Itis
said that in cases where winged flights were driven persistently through
a number of villages, without being allowed to settle, the locusts perished
without doing injury. The above account of the Madras locust invasion
of 1878 is chiefly taken from the official reports preserved in the Pro-
ceedings of the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the Govern-
ment of India. With regard to the identity of the insects concerned in the
Madras locust invasion of 1878, nothing seems to have been ascertained
at the time of the invasion, though the insects were spoken of in one of
the reports as belonging to the species Locusta migratoria. ‘This, however
may possibly have been due to the fact that the locust of Central Europe
is often referred to in old entomology books under this antiquated name ;
much importance, therefore, cannot be attached to the identification, and

|

No. 4, ] Locusts. 103

the only clue which we possess lies in the specimens preserved in the
collections of the Central Museum, Madras. From this museum a set of
Specimens, which are supposed torepresent the Madras locust of 1878,
have been kindly furnished by Mr, Edgar Thurston. They have been
identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure and prove to comprise no less than
six very distinct species, which are as follows: (1) Acridium earugino-
sum, Burm., represented by five or six specimens, which vary a good deal
in the arrangement of the wing markings, (2) Acridium melanocorne,
Serv., var., (3) Zrywalis turrita, Linn., (4) Mecopoda sp., (5) Hupres
_ pocnemis sp., represented in each case by one or at most two specimens,
(6) a specimen, in a very poor state of preservation, which belongs either
to the species Pachytylus migratorius or to Pachytylus cinerascens.

In July 1890 locusts were noticed in the Ganjam collectorate, the
following being the Collector’s report to the Revenue Board, Madras, on

the subject :—

‘JT have the honour to inform you that on the 24th instant I visited Purushotta-
pur in order to see whether anything could be done to destroy the locusts reported to
be doing so much mischief there.

“T had two large ‘bag nets’ made of bamboo matting, 15 feet long; and hoped
that I might have been able to do something with them; but am sorry to say that
all attempts ended in failure. I also attempted to drive the insects into trenches, but
without success. The reason for the failure is, that the insects, which are of four or five
different kinds, succeed in evading the net or the drive, the large ones by flying away
when approached, the smaller ones by dropping to the ground and clinging there, so
that nothing would remove them which would not at the same time root out alto-
gether the crop. The number of large brown insects which seem to be really locusts
is comparatively small, the great bulk are small brown and green grass-hoppers, which
are inmyriads. A great deal of damage has undoubtedly been done. The pest extends
over about 10 square miles, chiefly in the Pubbakhandam mutah of the Berhampore
taluk. Of one hundred and four villages (including Agraharams and Mokhasas) in
the mutah, fifty-five are more or less affected and ten have suffered seriously.

“ All the villages most affected are near the Dalibhillo Tampara, the embank-
ment of which breached in the floods of last year and has not yet been repaired, in
consequence of which a large expause of ground, usually under water, has been lying
dry. The ryots report that the insects first made their appearance in the vicinity of
the Tampara, and I think it probable that they were brought out in unusual quan-
tities owing to the unusual extent of dry ground there. Steps are being takeninow to
repair the embankment, and I trust that next year the Tampara will not afford so
convenient a breeding ground, and that the insects will either not re-appear or do soin

diminished numbers,”’

Specimens were forwarded to the Indian Maseum and were found to
eonsist of (1) ten adults and eight larve of Pachytylus cinerascens 1, (2)

=

These specimens were identified by Dr. Henri de Saussure ; the species is so closely
allied to Pachytylus migratorius, which is the common migratory locust of Central
Europe, that it is very doubtfulas to whether the two forms are separable. Koppen indeed
(vide Zool. Record, 1872, page 398) considers that P. cenerascens is only a variety of

104 Indian Museum Notes. (Vol. Il.

four specimens of Trygatis turrita, Linn., (3) one specimen of Oaya velox
Burm., (4) one specimen of a species which is probably Epacromia dorsalis

Thumb., (5) one larva of a grass-hopper probably belonging to the genus

Gidalus. Of these the immature specimens are probably the “small

brown and green grass-hoppers, ” alluded to by the Collector as present in

myriads, while the full-grown specimens of Pachytylus cinerascens are

likely to have been the “ locusts ” mentioned as present in comparatively

small numbers. Now, Pachytylus cinerascens is one of the chief migra-
tory locusts of Europe, where it sometimes does a great deal of damage.

The insect is essentially an inhabitant of the temperate zone, and this

would make it appear probable that its permanent breeding-ground lies

somewhere in the Nilgiri or other hills, whence it might easily be carried

upon the south-west monsoon across the presidency. The presence of

nearly full-grown larve shows that the original flight must have
remained in the district sufficiently long to have laid their eggs, and for
the eggs to have hatched, and for the larvae ‘to have passed through most

of the early stages, a process which probably occupied some months. In

the Palearctic zone P. cinerascens is said to lay its eggs in the autumn,

the young hatching out in the following summer, but we are as yet en-

tirely in the dark as to the habits which the insect acquires when it passes

out of a temperate climate into a tropical one. 2

Locusts in ASsaM.

Assam is not generally troubled by locusts, though in the cold
weather of 1890-91 a stray flight of Aeridium peregrinum from North-
Western India penetrated into it. In 1879 also both the antumn and
winter crops in Nowgong were reported by the Director of Agriculture
to have been largely destroyed by locusts, which were said to have come
from the tall grass jungle at the base of the Khasi and Mikir Hills,
where they breed permanently. Nothing is known of the identity of this

P. migratorius, and the specimens of the two forms in the Indian Museum (as determined
by Dr. Henri de Saussure) seem to point to this being the case. According to the synopsis
given on page 119 of Dr. Saussure’s Prodromus Cédipodiorum, in P., cinerascens the
male is smaller than the female, the panctation on the pronotum is somewhat coarse, the
notch in the carina is well marked, and the teeth on the posterior femora are large ; while
in P. migratorius the male is much the same size as the female, and the punctation on
the pronotum, the notch on the carina, and the teeth on the posterior femora are less
marked, ‘To these characteristics Mons. Frey Gessner adds that the carina on the thorax
of P. cinerascens is elevated into a well-marked ridge, while that of P. migratorius is
much less distinct. These characteristics however seem, in the absence of any well-marked
geographical boundary between the areas in which the two forms occur, to be of scarcely
sufficient importance to justify their separation into two species, this being especially the
case, as Dr. de Saussure writes that the females of the two forms are often almost indis-
tinguishable.

No. 4.] Loeusts, 105

locust, though it may possibly have been the insect Piymateus miliaris,
which was sent to the Indian Museum in September 1890 by General
Collett with the information that it was common in the neighkourhood
of Shillong. The following is taken from a report, dated 15th February
1883, by the Director of Agriculture in Assam :—

“T spent three weeks marching*in the Nowgong district, and visited most of ‘he
district, except the hill tracts. The Kakotiphoring, or Paper grass-hopper, as the locust
is called, is very well known. It is said to attain a length of six to seven inches. It
breeds in the tall reed and grass jungle, especially in the jungle at the foot of the hills
along the south of the district (the Khasia and Mikir Hills). The time of the appear-
ance of the insect is in the early spring, and it continues to feed till July.

* Local visitations of locusts are common enough. I found it generally stated
that they took place every two or three years. But one general invasion was well
remembered everywhere; the date was 1879: it began early and ended late, so as to
include both mustard and rice in the area of devastation. The mustard ripens in
January, uv

“The direction in which the locust swarms moved was somewhat different in
different places. Near the Khasia and Mikir Hills they seemed to come from the
south, ¢.e. from the submontane jungle. In the Chapari Mahals, between the Kalang
and Brahmaputra, the direction of their course was eastwards. They seem to have
moved with great regularity from west to east along this tract, a distance of some 50
miles. The ryots, moved perhaps by rumours of the Afghan war, which had penetrat-
ed thus far, told one another that they came from Cabul. Their numbers were such
that the reeds and grass of the jungle were bowed down by their weight when they
alighted, and they made a clean sweep of all the fields in their way. The Mikirs and
Lalungs eat locusts after parching them in the fire. Locusts can commonly be had
in the month of Bohag (April-May). The only remedy adopted against locusts is
one which the people appear to have invented for themselves. They sprinkle the
threatened crops with water in which salt has been dissolved, and in which onions
have been steeped. This remedy is said to have been effectual in 1879, after some
time; probably the locusts would have moved on in any ease.”

Locusts IN THE BomBay PRESIDENCY, EXCLUDING SIND.

In the autumn of 1890 flights of Acridium peregrinum from North-
Western India penetrated into the Bombay Deccan
and Konkan, and did slight damage over con-
siderable areas. An account of these flights has been given in
the report on Acridium peregrinnm, and we are now chiefly concerned
with the locusts which invaded the Presidency in 1882-88, though it
should also be noticed that, according to Hunter’s Gazetteer, locusts
appeared in 1878 in Kolaba and damaged the cold weather crops of
1878-79, nothing further, however, being recorded about them.

In 1882-83 locusts proved destructive throughout the whole of the
Bombay Deccan and Konkan, and though the identity of the insects
concerned was not altogether definitely ascertained, the history of the
invasion was very completely recorded in numerous official reports. The

General,

106 Indian Museum Notes. (Vol. Il.

sections, therefore, on the history of the invasion and on the remedies
adopted have been taken, much of them, verbatim from the reports of the
Bombay Government by Mr. J. Nugent, as recorded in the Records of
the Revenue and Agricultural Department of the Government of India.
The section on the life-history of the imsect is from a report by Mr.
Hatch, as veprinted in the Zndian Forester, Volume X.
In May and June 1882 locusts were noticed in the south-west of the
The history of theinva- Presidency (Dharwar and Kanara Collectorates),
sion. but they attracted little attention, as such swarms
are annual visitors of the Kanarese forests, and neither in Kanara
nor in Dharwar did they cause any material injury. With the
setting in of the south-west monsoon however, they spread in flights
over the Presidency, to the north and north-east (Satara, Poona, Nasik,
Ahmednagar, and Khandesh), and early in the rains proceeded to lay
their eggs and die, These eggs hatched in the end of July, or begin-
nine of August, and the young locusts did a large amount of damage,
over a wide area, through the months of August and September. In
the early part of October, with the setting in of the north-east monsoon,

the young locusts, which had by this time acquired wings, took flight.

and travelled with the prevailing wind in a south-westerly direction,
doing some injury in the Poona collectorate as they passed. They then
struck the Western Ghats, and spread slowly over the Konkan in Novem-
ber, and thence travelled into the Native State of Sawantwari, and the
Kanara district. During the remainder of the cold season and the hot
weather (December 1882 to the end of May 1883) the flights clung to
the line of Ghats, occasionally venturing inland into Belgaum, Dharwar,
the Kolhapur state, and Satara, and devouring the spring: crops in the
coast districts, but ordinarily returning to the vicinity of the hill ranges.
With the commencement of the south-west monsoon however, in the
latter part of May 1883, the flichts began to move in a north-easterly
direction, as they had done the preceding year, but in larger numbers.
At the commencement of the rains they began to alight in vast
numbers over an immense tract of country comprising the six Deccan
collectorates of Sholapur, Poona, Khandesh, Ahmednagar, Satara, and
Nasik, and also in the three coast collectorates of Ratnagiri, Kolaba, and
Thana. They deposited their eggs, and died, and early in August the
young locusts batched out in countless numbers, but were apparently more
backward and possessed of less strength and stamina than were those
of the preceding year. The unusually heavy rainfall killed vast numbers

of these in different parts of the country, and elsewhere the insects seem- -

ed stunted and feeble, and grew but slowly. They were destroyed in
vast numbers by the vigorous measures initiated by the officials, and
were also said to he diseased and attacked by mites and nematode para-

No. 4] Locusts, 107

sites, As late as November the mass of the young locusts appeared un-
able to fly and made no gereral movement to the south-west, as they
had done the year before. The invasion was, in fact, at an end, and though
(according to Hunter's Gazetteer) swarms appeared in Sawantwari in
1883-84, no further injury of a serious nature seems to have occurred.
The injury occasioned to the rain crops by the locusts was very con-

siderable, over a great portion of the Deccan and Konkan both in 1832 and
1883. But though some relief works were started, especially in the coast
districts, it was found, at the end of the invasion, that the abundance of
the cold weather crops had compensated to so great an extent for the
injury occasioned to the rain crop, that no widespread injury had been
occasioned.

Rneshesthistory: of the Mr. Hatch describes the life-history of the lo-
locust. cust, as observed in the Konkan, as follows! :—

“In the Konkan locusts coupled in great numbers between the 15th May and the
15th June 1883, and died off naturally immediately after the eggs had been deposited.
The eggs are deposited mostly in flat and gently sloping land of soft friable soil, rocky
and sandy soil being avoided, and land which has been ploughed up, and the lee side
of banks, where the soil has accumulated, are mostly selected. ‘he eggs are piled ina
small cylindrical hole, parallel to its sides, and are attached to one another by some
cohesive siccable substance. Filling the mouth of the hole is a plug, consisting of a
soft fibrous substance, and below it the eggs, arranged as described, averaging 7O in
each hole. The holes are from 1°5 to 2 inches in depth, and in a good locality four
might be found in a span. They are not easily visible, but when one is found, others
are generally near it. Brushing off the loose dust and digging here and there faci-
litates search.

“The eges themselves are of a dirty ochre colour, in lenyth ‘2 to-°3, and in
diameter ‘05 to ‘08 of an inch, rounded in section, with a slight curve, and tapering
very slightly towards the rounded ends. . . When fresh, the contents of the eges
are of a dirty orange colour, liquid but slightly viscous, with a somewhat acrid taste.
The envelope apparently consists of two layers, the outer one coloured and tough, and
the inner one white and fragile. When broken, the eggs give off an odour likea
broken root. As the eggs approach maturity, they assume a distinctly greenish hue,
and the young locust bursts the shell down the middle on issuing into life. I experi-
mented on some eggs by placing them in damp and very damp soil, but the water did
not affect the hatching.

“The young locusts appeared in myriads in my district (Chiplum taluka) between
Ist and 20th August, so that the period the eggs required to hatch was a little more
than two months, say seventy days.

“The yonng locusts vary somewhat in colour, most being a dullish light green, some
light green, but hardly verdant, and a few almost white and only tinged with green.
A few minutes after hatching they are strong enough to jump . 6 : . The
antennz are darksome and short, whilst on the thigh cases small black spots, and on
the upper side of the abdomen a faint black line, are just visible.

“The young locusts generally cast their slough for the first time about 15 days
after birth, and in their new skin the black lhe, and spots become darker and the
green colour of a deeper hue. They now leave the grass land and seek the shelter of
the crops, and are in length ‘8 of an inch.

‘ 1 From his report, as reprinted in the Zedian Forester, vol. X, p. 429.

108 Indian Museum Notes, [Vol. IL

“After another interval of 15 days they again cast their slough aud enter on the
third state. In this the black line becomes very intense, as also do the spots, which
lengthen and form the so-called ‘ Koranie verses ’—they do show a certa‘n similitude to
some letters of the Arabic alphabet vernacular. They are now 1°2 of an inch in length.

“They enter the 4th stage by casting their slough after another 15 days, and
assume, including the antenne, a yellow colour, which, towards the end of the stage,
becomes pinkish grey. The black line and the‘ Koranic verses’ are now very intense
in colour, and the insect attains the length of 1°6 of an inch.

“A great transformation is witnessed on entry into the 5th stage after 15 more
days. ‘The female is now 2 inches long, whilst the male issomewhat less. The colour
of the head, prothorax, and abdomen is a grey or drab, speckled on the prothorax, and
darker along the upper side of the abdomen. The ringed antennz are a deep yellow,
the eyes chestnut and striated, whilst for the first time appears an oblong mark under
each eye, indigo green in colour, and bordered on each side by yellow. The Arabic
letters have now disappeared, whilst the spots on the thigh cases are obsolescent. The
young wings, too, now first appear. At first very small, they grow during the period
of this stase—20 days. ‘The contents of the wing-sprouts are at first liquid, and the
young wings may be seen forming within the semi-transparency. When they are fully
formed, the insect is of a dark brownish grey colour, whilst on the prothorax and else-
where may be distinguished the colouring of the next stage.

“In its 6th and perfect stage the insect presents a brilliant appearance. The female
is now 3 inches, and the male 25 inches, in whole length, from head to tips of wings
which overlap the abdomen by *d of an inch, andare rounded. On casting the slough,
the wings dry and unfold, and the body of the insect, at first soft and moist, gradually
hardens in the sun. The antenne are ‘8 inch in length, and ofa bright yellow
colour; the head is a brownish yellow, and the eyes, finely striated, are of a deep
chestnut. The prothorax is alternately banded with a bright yellow and a rich brown,
parallelwise to the body, and the legs are of an ochreish hue. Along the upper rim of
the femur ruus a deep brown stripe, aud the knee-caps are of the same colour. The
tibia, tarsus, and foot are a bright ochre, and the first is armed with 8 black-tipped
spurs on the outside and 11 on the inside, while there are a pair of spurs on each side
of the ankle-joint and on each side of the foot. The outer wings, or wing cases, have
the colours on the prothorax extended to them, and on the back they form a flat
surface, tapering to the extremity. They are strongly veined and finely reticulated,
and towards the extremities are irregularly brown marked. The inner wings, which
are expansive, are hardly coloured. The abdomen is a light brown, darker along the
ridge, and in the female there are four spiky processes at its extremity, the upper pair
curling up and the lower pair downwards. In the male the lower pair is replaced by
one spiky process, larger and stronger.

“The locust now packs with its kindred, and they form the swarms which
ravage the couatry. After a month or so they assume a red tinge, which gradually
deepens and continues until their death, which takes place after the sexual function
has been performed in May or June. The proportion of males to females appeared to
me about 1 in 6.

“The whole life of the insect, including the egg-period, is exactly one year.”

Various methods were employed in the Bombay Presidency in 1882-83
to destroy the locusts, which were to a large extent
kept under by the energetic measures taken against
them. The Cyprus screen system,' was found utterly inapplicable and

Remedies.

1 The Cyprus screen [system consists in erecting a long line of screens, each two to

No. 4.] Locusts. 109

had to be abandoned. The search for eggs also was not found suacessful
as a means of destroying the pest. A plan was tried of marching lines
of beaters, armed with bundles of twigs througk the fields beating the
ground so as to crush the young locusts. This was to some extent suc-
cessful in short grass, but could not be made use of with growing crops.
The plan of dragging country blankets rapidly over a field where locusts
were to be found, and squeezing up the cloth every few yards to kill
the insects which had been caught, was found useful in bushy tracts, but
required, for its successful working, a good deal of activity and intel-
ligence. The most successful method consisted in dragging over the
fields a capacious bag, five or six feet deep by eight or ten feet long and
much like a huge bolster case, but open at the side, instead of at the
end, This was held by two men, one at each end, and was run along
over the grass or young crops, to catch the locusts, which tumbled in,
and, being unable to escape, could, from time to time, be killed by twisting
up the bag. This was found to bea simple and easy means of destroy.
ing the locusts, and the people took to it readily all over the locust-
affected area. little or no injury was done to the crops by the men
working it, and millions of insects were killed.

With regard tu the numbers destroyed during the locust invasion,
the Collector of Nasik reported the destruction. in his collectorate alone
of some forty-five tons of locusts, which he estimated must have repree
sented about a thousand millions of individual locusts, Similarly in the
Satara collectorate one hundred and eighty tons were reported to have
been destroyed by the local officials. The numbers destroyed in these
two collectorates were no doubt greater than in most of the collectorates
which suffered from the locusts, but the figures give some idea of the
extent of the invasion.

With regard to the identity of the locust of 1882-83 Dr. Macdonald

in his report, reprinted in the Indian Forester, Vol.
elo- +X, advanced the supposition that the insect was
Acridium peregrinum, and this name was adopted
in most of the official reports which subsequently appeared. There
seems, however, to be conclusive proof that the insect belonged to some
other species, In the reports, both of Lieutenant Colonel Swinhoe and

The identity of th
cust.

three feet high, in front of an advancing swarm of young wingless locusts, pits being dug
at intervals, close to the screens and at right angles to them, on the side towards the ad-
vancing swarm, the object being that the young locusts, on arriving at the screens, may
turn to the right and left, and thus pour into the pits, where they can be destroyed. The
chief advantage of the screen system is, that it enables a series of pits, dug at intervals, to
take the place of the continuous trench that would otherwise be necessary to catch the whole
of aswarm. The material hitherto chiefly used for the screens has been cloth, bound along
the top with a strip of slippery oilcloth about four inches wide to prevent the locusts elimbing
over, but smooth mat screens are likely to be cheaper for use in many parts of India.
The pits are usually furnished with overhanging zinc edges to prevent the locusts escaping.

110 Indian Museum Notes. | | (Vol. Tie

of Lieutenant Colonel Bradford, the locust of Rajputaua, which is un-
doubtedly Acrzdium peregrinum, is spoken of as distinct from the Bombay
locust of 1882-83. Acridium peregrinum has been shown to be essentially
the inhabitant of sandy deserts, while the Bombay locust of 1882-83
originated in the tropical forests of the Western Ghats. The habits also
of the Bombay locust of 1852-83 differed materially from those of
Acridium peregrinum, in that the young wingless larve of Acridium pere-
grinum can be readily driven into traps, while those of the Bombay
species entirely declined to be destroyedin this manner. Again, specimens
said to be “ locusts ” were sent from the Bombay Presidency in 1883 to
the well known entomologist Mr. F. Moore, who identified them as be-
longing to no less than five species, namely :—Acridiwm succinctum,
Caloptenus erubescens, Caloptenus caliginosus, Cyriacanthacres ranacea, and
Oxya furcifera ; Acridium peregrinum being unrepresented, a circumstance
which is not likely to have occurred if this had been the species which
was at that time swarming over the Presidency. Again, at a meeting of
the Entomological Society of London, held on the 4th of April 1883, Mr°
W.F. Kirby, of the British Museum, exhibited specimens of a locust
which he identified as deridium suceinctum aud which he had received
from Mr. T. Davidson, who stated that it was the species which had
lately been destructive in the Deccan and other parts of India. In the
absence, therefore, of actual specimens, which do not seem to have been
preserved, it may be concluded as most probable that while numerous
species of Acridide may have been present in great numbers in the
Bombay Presidency in 1882-83, the insect chiefly responsible for the in-
jury to the crops was Acridium succenctum, which, therefore, would be
the one spoken of by most of the observers, who, from their reports, seem
to have noticed but one kind of insect.

Locusts IN OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD.

Many species of Orthoptera occasionally increase vastly in numbers,
so as to cause serious injury to agricultural crops;
and there are, in different parts of the world, cer-
tain species, which are known distinctively as Locusts, and which possess
this habit to a remarkable degree, often migrating in swarms which
devour the crops over wide areas of country. Migratory locusts usually
breed permanently in tracts where the vegetation is sparse. In years
when. they increase excessively, they descend in flights from their per-
manent breeding-grounds, upon cultivated districts, where they destroy
the crops, lay their eggs, and maintain themselves for a limited period,
but are unable to establish themselves permanently, usually disappearing
in the year following the invasion, to be succeeded, after an interval of
years, by fresh swarms from the permanent breeding-ground.

General.

No. 4. | ; “ Locusts. lll

Generally speaking, the life circle of a locust extends through one
year, in which period it passes through its various stages of eee, young
- wingiless larva, active pupa, and winged adult which lays the eggs that
are to produce the next generation, the only recorded exception being
Acridium peregrinum, which is believed to pass through two generations
in the year in India.

The eges are laid in little agglutinated masses in holes which the
female bores with her evipositor in the ground. In temperate climates
the eggs are usually laid by the end of summer, and the parent locust
dies before the winter commences, the eggs remaining in the ground
during the winter months, and hatching out in the following spring. In
sub-tropical countries, where there is but little winter, the winged locusts
live on through the cold season and do not die off until the following
spring, when they deposit their eggs. In this case the eggs hatch after
lying in the ground for about a month. In both temperate and sub-
tropical regions alike, the young wingless locusts, on emerging from the
eggs in the spring or early summer, feed voraciously and grow rapidly
for one or two months, during which period they molt at intervals,
finally developing wings and becoming adult. The adult locusts fly
about in swarms, which settle from time to time and devour the crops.
The damage done by locusts is thus occasioned, first, by the young wing-
less insects, and afterwards by the winged adults into which the young
transform after a couple of months of steady feeding.

The following are the chief species of locusts found in different parts
of the world other than India :—

Pachytylus migratorius, the chief migratory locust of Europe, occurs
especially in Eastern Europe and Southern Russia, also in Central Asia,
Siberia, North China, Japan, Fiji Islands, New Zealand, North Australia,
Mauritius, Madeira, and possibly in South Africa, very little, however,
being known about its distribution in the Southern Hemisphere (Me
Lachlan: article Locust, Kneyclopedia Britannica). It may be looked
upon as the chief locust of the temperate zone, excluding America. An
elaborate account of this species in South Russia is given by Koppen
(Hore, Soc. Ent. Ross. iii, pp. 89—~—246 ; reviewed in Zool, itecord, 1867,
p. 457). From eggs laid in the autumn the larve hateh in the spring
(April and May), and molt four times before they become adult. The
Jarvee band themselves together and move in search of nutriment, feed-
ing chiefly on gramine, and doing a vast amount of damage. The
imagos emerge about July, copulate soon afterwards, and oviposition
extends from August to October. Each female copulates and oviposits
about three times, at intervals of about a month; each time laying from
50 to 90 eggs, in a hole bored by her horny ovipositor in the soil. This
hole is about 14 inches deep and is lined with frothy matter, which hard-

112 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. I.

ens into a case for the eggs. The eggs have been found to withstand
as low a temperature as 26° F. below zero. The dry steppes constitute
the chief haunts of the locusts, which avoid damp places. The females
generally oviposit in solid virgin soil, and seldom visit ploughed land for
this purpose. Koppen is of opinion that the countries in which the
swarms are seen are also, generally speaking, the countries of their
origin.

Pachytylus cinerascens, Fabr., and Gidipoda tatarica, Motsch., which
have been described by different authors as distinct from P. migratorzus,
are considered by Koppen to be but varieties of one and the same species
(Hore, Soc. Ent. Ross. i, 1867). P. cznerascens is the form which has
usually appeared in England and Belgium, in the latter of which coun-
tries Képpen notices that it probably breeds (Zool. Record, 1872, p. 398).
It also occurs in India ‘wide pp. 101 to 104 on Locusts in Madras).

Pachytylus pardaiwnus has been described as destructive in South
Africa (Trans. Soc, Afr. Phil. Soe. 1, p. 193, 1880).

Pachytylus stridulus, Gdipoda vastator, Stauronotus vastator, and
Pezotettix alpina have been noticed amongst other locusts as occasionally
destructive in Southern Russia, especially when associated with the com-
mon migratory species Pachytylus migratorius and Caloptinus italrcus
of that region (Képpen, Hore, Soc. Ent. Ross. ii, 1867).

Caloptenus spretus, the Rocky Mountain locust (see Reports of United -
States Entomologists—Ruiley, Pachard and Thomas,— Washington, 1877-
79), caused injury, between the years 1874 and 1877, estimated at 200
million dollars, It breeds permanently only in a broad and compara.
tively barren region in the north-west of America, whence the invading
winged swarms swoop down upon the fertile plains of the south and south-
east, not appearing in the Mississipi valley until the latter part of
July or the beginning of August, when wheat, barley and oats have
generally reached perfection and been harvested. This, it is reported,
renders it possible to prevent serious injury by relying chiefly on these
crops when there is reason to fear incursions. On arrival the locusts
devour everything green to be found, until they deposit their eggs and
die in the autumn. From these eggs are produced in the spring vast
hordes of young which devour everything green they can find, travelling
along the ground (not having yet acquired wings) from the fields they
have exhausted to fresh ground. They may be destroyed in vast numbers
by systematic rolling, collecting by hand, by drawing bags over the field,
&¢., and their advance may be prevented by digging ditches in front of
them with a streak of tar at the bottom, and also by driving them into
heaps of straw to be then burnt, the trees being protected by bands
formed of poisonous or impenetrable substances. When the larvee are
full-fed and acquire wings they rise up, by this time followed by hosts

No. 4] . Locusts. 113

of insect parasites (Tachinz, Ichneumonide, &c.), and weakened by
disease, and make their way more or less directly towards their perma-
nent breeding-grounds ; they perish by millions on the road, so that but
few ever reach their home, in the high and barren north-west, where
alone they are able to propagate permanently. They leave (it is reported)
a great part of the country sufficiently early to allow of corn of rapid
growth being produced after their departure, and succeeding swarms
avoid the parasite-stricken districts which their immediate predecessors
have deserted. Hogs, poultry, and all kinds of birds, besides various
insects, destroy vast numbers of the locusts; and as they can only exist
permanently in the comparatively barren north-west, it is supposed
that when this breeding-ground is irrigated and settled, the locusts will
gradually be exterminated.

Caloptenus ttalicus occurs on the European side of the Mediterra-
nean (Italy, Austria, &c.) ; it is also found in North Africa and South
Russia (Verz. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien. xvii, p. 980; Bull. Ent. Ital.
xiii, p. 210). It has been reported as destructive.

' Stawronotus cruciatus has proved injurious in Italy and Sicily (Bull.

Ent, Ital. xiii, p. 210). It also periodically invades Cyprus and the
Troad (Proc. Ent. Soc. Lond. 1881, pp. xiv & xxxviil; also, Brown :—
Report on the Locust Campaign of 1885-86 in Cyprus).

In Cyprus the locust is indigenous to the island. The young hatch
out about the middle of March, and take about six weeks to become
adult, when they acquire wings, take flight, and soon afterwards copulate
and oviposit, The eggs are laid in uncultivated rocky ground, ploughed
land and light soil being avoided. Each egg-pod contains about 33
egos. Some damage is done by the winged swarms, which, however,
generally disappear by about the middle of June, the eggs remaining in
the ground until about the following March, when they hatch.

Serious loss is often occasioned by the locusts, and of late years a
regular warfare has been waged against them by the Government of the
island. The following was found to be the most satisfactory method of
destroying them: Cloth-screens, about three feet high and bound at
the top with a strip of oilcloth to prevent the locusts from climbing
over, were erected in front of the advance of the young locusts, pits
being dug at intervals close to the screens and at right angles to them
on the side towards the locust swarm, the edges of the pits being
protected by’frames made of cloth and wood, with zine edge arranged to
prevent the young locusts from escaping from the pits. A swarm, on
arriving at the screen, was found invariably to turn'right and left along
it, apparently endeavouring to go ronnd it, the young locusts thus
poured in vast numbers into the pits dug to receive them, and being un-
able to escape, were destroyed wholesale. In the case of the locust in-

114 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. I.

vasion of 1886 Brown reports (wvzde official report presented to both

Houses of Parliament by Her Majesty, February 1887) :—

“There were very few places where the locusts were sufficiently dense to justify
the use of screens and traps, and they were in most cases destroyed by covering the
ground they occupied by a thin layer of dry brushwood or rubbish and setting fire to
it. By this means large areas were burned. Where the locusts were so sparsely
scattered, or the scarcity of brushwood rendered this method inapplicable, they were
destroyed by beating (an improved beater or locust flap of leather, weighted with lead,
having been introduced by me this season). he weak point of these methods, as
compared with the screen and trap system, is that, although the locusts may be greatly
reduced, it is practically impossible absolutely to exterminate them, whereas ‘our ex-
perience of 1883 and 1884 abundantly proved that when carelully worked it is possi-
ble, by the continuous screen system then first introduced, to completely clear large
tracts of land where the locust swarms were most dense.”

Stauronotus maroccanus.—This insect, which is found in most of the
countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and which has also been
reported from Badghis in Afghanistan, has of late (1887—-89) proved very
destructive to grain crops in Eastern Algeria, where its increase has been
favoured by drought. Unlike Acredium peregrinum, which periodically
invades Algeria from the south, it breeds permanently on the sparsely-
vegetated hill ranges in Algeria itself (Batna, M’lila, M’sila, Bord),
Rendir, &c.), and thence descends in countless numbers into the culti-
vated plains towards the shores of the Mediterranean. The invading
flights appear in the summer, and the females proceed, on arrival, to
deposit their eggs in holes about an inch deep, which they bore with
their ovipositors in the ground. About thirty or forty eggs are deposited |
in a mass of mucilage in each hole. These eggs remain in the ground
throughout the autumn and winter, and hatch in the following spring
(eggs laid in the end of June and beginning of July 1888 hatched in
April 1889). Afcer hatching out, the young locusts band themselves
together and march through the country devouring the crops. ‘The loss
occasioned in 1888 was estimated in the Consular report at about a_
million sterling. In 1888 measures were taken upon a large scale by —
the French Government for the destruction of the eggs, about 600,000
francs being said to have been expended in buying eggs, at the rate of
1 fr. 50 c. for two decalitres, from the Arabs. These measures, however,
proved insufficient, and were considered unsatisfactory, M. Kiinckel
d’Herculais indeed showing that whereas a man can rarely collect as
much as 2°60 litres of egg cases, containing some 72,000 eggs, in a day,
he can destroy about a million young locusts by collecting them after
they have emerged from the eggs. In 1889, therefore, the Government
introduced the Cyprus screen system upon a considerable scal> for the
destruction of the young locusts. About 300 kilometres of screen were
procured and 100,000 people were employed in destroying the young

No. 4] Locusts. 115

locusts. These measures seem to have been attended with considerable
success, though definite information has not been received as to what
extent the country was cleared of the pest ?.

Acridium peregrinum.—This is the chief locust of Northern Africa,
Arabia, Persia, Baluchistan, and North-Western India, It has been
fully dealt with in the report already issued.

Acridium paranense has been described as the migratory locust of the
Argentine republic, though some writers are of opinion that it may per-
haps be the same as Aeridium peregrinum (vide McLachlan: Encyclop.
Brit., article Locust). P

E. C. COTES,
13th May 1891. Indian Museum.

1 The above account is chiefly drawn from (1) Reports I and II by Mons. J. Kiinckel
d’Herculais, dated May and August 1888; (2) Diplomatic and Consular Report on Agricul-
ture in Algeria, No. 469; (8) Papers which have appeared in the Illustrated London News,
Le Mobacher published in Algiers, and Insect Life published in Washington,

Government of India Central Printing Office—No, 267 R. & A.—17-9-91.—1,000,—F, J, B.

‘CON Chukrabotty, del.

SOR Ue SUCCINCT UM: LINN.

Photo-etching from the original Drawings - Survey of India Offices, Caleutta, August 1891.

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