The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro.

  • Munro, Aeneas.
Date:
[1899]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The locust plague and its suppression / by Æneas Munro. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    67/388 page 43
    before. This life continues as before to all appearance for a few weeks (about three or four), and then comes the period where the signs of the attention alluded to bear their natural and legitimate fruit. The rule is that the male and female locusts pair, but Mr. W. F. H. Blandford says : “ Locusts exhibit both polygamy and polyandry, but the fact of the ovi- position is no sign of the approaching death of either sex, except in the case where it happens to be the last egg-pod of the female that is laid.” NESTING AND LAYING 100. Deposition of the eggs, or the laying.—Like most other animal creatures, the locust springs from an egg, and the process we are now to consider, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting and curious in this inquiry. I am not aware what is the exact time that elapses between the “pairing” and the “laying,”but the latter operation is performed with a similar degree of universality as the former. At a given time these careful females having selected by natural instinct the best breeding ground, prepare for the wonderful operation. The whole flock breaks up into smaller companies, which, so far as I have noticed, are mainly formed of females, but on this latter point I do not at present wish to speak affirmatively. So far as I could judge from the observations I was enabled to make, the males made themselves scarce on the laying ground, inasmuch as you see all on the spot almost com- pletely sunk in the holes I am about to describe. Where the males are at this time I do not quite know. 101. Breeding ground.—What is their breeding or laying ground ? The female visitors select parts that are dry, hard, untilled high waste land. But they may lay in any kind of soil, though such is not the rule. Preferentially they select the foregoing when allowed, but in meadows and pastures they sometimes nest, and are there undisturbed, and you may find them in abundance. They avoid loose earth and places that are damp or wet. Thus in cultivated regions they do not choose the loose, well-tilled, and damp earth, but the harder and more compact parts at the margin (“ headrig ”), which is compressed, and does not happen to be so loose. They seem to have a wonderful tact so as to select the hardish ground of the field. Along a road or the banks of a railroad where the grass and turf has been removed, and where the soil is free from rootlets of the grasses, or along a well-made waggon road in the open camp or veldt and not much frequented, are suitable situations for them, and there you may see myriads of them at the operation, which lasts only a couple of days or so. This is the rule affecting the healthy female swarm, but disease and other circum- stances may intervene and change the normal rule. 102. The nest.—To understand how the hole is made, it is requisite
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image
    No text description is available for this image