Some "Memoranda of the
Locust
Season in Ohio 1855"
Edited by RENDELL RHOADES*
THE FIRST CHATTEL I ever remember buying
at a public
sale was a bushel of books. This was in
August 1931 at the
John L. West farm about three miles
north of Hillsboro, in
Highland County, Ohio. The lot
consisted of such choice items
as a history of the modern world (up to
1828), a volume of
funereal poetry, a running account of
Greek mythology, and
an old-fashioned bound copybook
containing a few pages of
farm accounts, then blank pages to page
251, where a hand-
written report began under the title
quoted above. Being ama-
teurishly interested in biology at that
time, I rather cherished
the latter volume for this part of its
contents.
While enrolled as a graduate student in
zoology at Ohio
State University, I attended the first
general meeting of the
Columbus Entomological Society on
October 13, 1936. Dr.
Herbert Osborn, dean of Ohio entomologists, spoke on
"Some
Personal Experiences in Entomology; or
Why I Became an
Entomologist." During his
reminiscing he recalled occurrences
of seventeen-year locusts back before
the turn of the last
century. After the meeting I talked
with him about locusts
and mentioned the short sketch in the
old copybook. He told
me such a "fragment" of Ohio
entomological history should
be published.
I remembered Dr. Osborn's remark as I
rediscovered the
sketch recently among some manuscripts
that had been stored
for twenty-five years. Since it is now
more than a century old,
* Rendell Rhoades is a member of the
department of zoology and entomology
at Ohio State University.
MEMORANDA OF A LOCUST SEASON 153
perhaps it can appropriately be
published as entomological
history.
After these many years I have not been
able to determine
its author. It does seem certain,
though, that if he was not
the owner of the West farm in 1855, he
did have a farm with
a growing orchard somewhere in the
vicinity, for the dates of
his observations coincide with those in
the accounts of the
visitation in the Highland Weekly
News of Hillsboro.
MEMORANDA OF THE LOCUST SEASON IN OHIO
18551
Locusts began to come out of the ground
on my place May 27th 1855.
During the spring they had been often
found in a grub state in digging
post holes and other excavation but had
not before come to the surface.
When they first appeared coming out of
the ground they were nearly
white & would crawl feebly up the
nearest weed, stick, tree, fence or other
object, and in a short time their shell
would burst open along the back
and head and the locust would come out
perfect in size & form and
would crawl slowly up higher leaving its
shell attached to the spot
where it was shed.
After some hours exposure to the light
and air the wings and body
would change from a whitish color to a
brown, and the insect would
begin to take short flights and also to
sing. In about a week or ten days
they seemed to be all up and in full
strength, covering the trees, and
flying freely and strongly through the
air for long distances, and their
singing was constant from morning till
night, so that nothing else could
be heard.
Their cry would cease a short time
before dark and begin again at
day break in the morning. It was a
steady hum lasting for nearly a
minute, and varying a little in its
notes at the close, & the number was
so great that there was no cessation and
the whole country was filled
with the sound. If the day was warm
& sunny they sing earlier, later, &
louder, and they always made most noise
in the middle of the day. The
ground was full of little round holes,
about the size of their bodies
through which they had made their way in
ascending sometimes a dozen
or more in a square foot. Having a large
number of young fruit trees,
apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry,
quince, apricot, nectarine etc., to which
1 Original spelling and punctuation have
been preserved throughout except that
a very few obviously unintentional omissions in
punctuation here and there have
been supplied.
154
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
I expected great injury from them I
watched their movements very
closely. They began to sting on the 16th
of June on my place. Though
I heard of some stinging elsewhere a day
or two before.--I continued to
observe and note down their
characteristics and habits, and think I can
describe both them and the insect with
perfect accuracy though proba-
bly not in scientific terms.
It in its general appearance resembles a
large horse fly. There are
two varieties differing however only in
size and color, the larger being
perhaps twice as large as the smaller,
and the latter being by far the
most numerous, in fact there were very
few of the larger kind.
The body of the larger variety2 male
of the larger variety is about
1 3/10 inches in length, the color when
matured, in stinging time black
upon the back & brown upon the
belly, with yellow cross bars, six legs,
a proboscis like that of horse fly,
about 2/10 of an inch long, antennae
small like a hair, a little more than an
inch long, two transparent wings
on each side the larger 1 4/10 inches
long and 5 1/2/10 of an inch wide
at the broadest point, with something
resembling the letter W. near the
extremes of the longer wing, and
the under and smaller wing 8/10 of an
inch long & 4/10 of an inch wide
& fan shaped, eyes prominent, red,
waxy in appearance immovable &
perfectly hard. When examined under
a microscope the body & legs seem
hairy, and there are discovered three
small spots on the forehead precisely
resembling the eyes in appearance
but darker color. These spots are barely
visible to the naked eye. The
noise of the insect is made by a drum
situated on the sides and under the
belly. It is separated into four
divisions, and has a rapid vibrating
motion while the insect is in the act of
buzzing or singing. The female
is rather shorter being about 1 1/10 of
an inch in length, and the body
coming more sharply to a point behind
and turns upward.
The female is also perfectly silent.
Making no perceptible noise at
any time, and having no drum under the
belly like the male. The sting
is peculiar to the female and is a black
round horny instrument about
4/10 of an inch long slightly widened
& flattened at the end but coming
to a point with a slight curve at the
end. It seems hollow and the egg is
delivered from an opening near the end.
The female is more compact
and stronger in the body than the female
and its legs and feet or claws
are larger and stronger in proportion to
the size, which is necessary to
enable it to thrust its sting into the
branches & twigs of trees to deposit
its eggs. In the act of laying its eggs
the female lays hold firmly of the
branch with its claws usually on the
under side and the sting being pro-
2 Italics indicate words or phrases
marked out in the original manuscript.
MEMORANDA OF A LOCUST SEASON 155
jected from its socket by a vigorous
backward motion, after repeated
auger efforts it is thrust its whole length obliquely into
the branch and
the egg deposited. (The branches
preferred seem to of such a size that
the sting can reach the heart of pith or
the twig.) It then withdraws its
sting and directly thrusts it back again
into the same wound chiseling
and splitting the wood from the side of
the first hole and penetrating to
about the same depth when another egg is
deposited. This operation is
repeated till the bottom of the hole is
grooved out for about 2/10 of an
inch and about a dozen eggs are
deposited. On examination these eggs
are found lying regularly side by side
in the groove for its whole length,
and there are usually two grooves
parallell to each other filled with
eggs at the same point, & deposited
at the same time the sting being
thrust through the same hole in the
bark. The deposit of eggs through
this aperture being finished the insect
climbs up the branch from a
quarter to a half an inch and commences
anew, perforation going
through the same process with the same
result until If not disturbed it
continues its operations until it has
made perhaps a dozen similar in-
cisions in a line beneath the branch
extending for three or four inches
the bottom of each hole being filled
with a little nest of eggs.
(The branches preferred are those from
half an inch to an inch in
diameter of such a size that the sting can reach the heart or
pith, and
deposit the eggs there. The result is
that the branch is seriously weak-
ened at this point or breaks readily. So
that a few weeks after the trees
most attacked were covered with
pendant dead twigs broken at the
wounded point but still hanging, and
the ground was strewn with small
branches which had fallen from a like
cause.
July 7th July 2 The decrease of the
locusts was very perceptible only.
For depositing their eggs the apple,
pear & quince & oak were preferred.
Of fruit trees generally selected for
the deposit of their eggs were
the apple, pear & quince, and those
generally avoided were the peach &
cherry. Of forest other trees the
oaks was of a varieties seemed to the
favorites, but the black and white
walnut & the catalpa were easily
touched.
July 2d the decrease of the locusts was
very perceptible, only 300
being killed in going through the
orchard in the morning. July 4th a few
remained but they were mostly feeble.
July 9th no locusts had been seen for a
day or two, but on this day a
single one was found. It was on its last
legs however and could fly but
a few yards and was easily caught. On
dissection it was found to be a
new shed and though a female was
destitute of eggs.
156
THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY
Having a very large and choice
collection of young fruit trees the
locusts have caused much trouble. Merely
shaking the trees has done
no good they only [go] from one to
another. The only effective method
to lessen their ravages is to catch and
kill them at once. I have destroyed
thousands & ten thousands in this
way. During & after a rain, early in
the morning or late in the evening,
especially if the weather be cool they
can be picked off the branches as easy
as black berries, and about as fast.
For 5 in [to?] fifty may sometimes be
taken from a little apple tree 6
or 7 feet high so that a few cents a
hundred pays well. A pinch between
the thumb and finger at the moment of
seizure, Drop it in the basket &
take another.