Rensselaer Union, Volume 10, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 January 1878 — Insect Ravages—Report of the Locust Commission. [ARTICLE]

Insect Ravages—Report of the Locust Commission.

A recent Washington dispatch says: 1 he United States Commission which was organized for the purpose of inves”K ftt tng the subject of insect ravages in the W est, and of devising a remedy for the evil, has finished its field-labors for •he year. Its memliers will soon asaemble in this city to complete their annual report to Congress. This report will make a volume of about 500 pages. It will be ready for distribution in February or March. Among other interesting questions to be treated of in the report, the migratory habits of the locust will lie described, showing that, like many species of birds, these insects journey at certain fixed seasons southward, and at certain other seasons return to the place of their origin. These migrations being foreseen, steps may bo taken to protect from their ravages the fields which lie under their line of flight. Many methods of accomplishing this are suggested, some of the most effective of which are the direct fruit of the researches and experiments made by this Commission. It is shown that the destructive propensities of these pesfs can, by timely precautions, be practically neutralized. The definite limits, beyond which the locusts have not ventured, are carefully fixed, and the crops which are most liable to destruction, and the best methods of procedure, with regard to the protection of each, are specifically given. The insects’ feeding habits are treated of at grea length, and form an interesting feature of the report. The examination of the stomachs of more than ninety species and 690 specimens were made with special reference to this subject, and the value hitherto placed on these aids by entomologists is fully sustained by the results now arrived at. Among the discoveries made by the Commission, those relating to the habits of the silky mite and of the blister * beetles, w ill be of interest to entomologists. The former is an eight-legged creature which preys on tne locust eggs. It is proved to be the mature form of the Tittle six-legged mite, which is parasitic to the locust. Of the larval habits of the blister beetle nothing has heretofore been known, notwithstanding that the attention of scientific men has been directed to the matter for many years, both on account of its value in commerce under the name of the Spanish fly, and of the injury it causes to potatoes and some other plants. Many facts of interest with regard to the origin and habits of this insect have been discovered and will be made the subjectof a chapter in the report