Train Impeding Insects.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVII, Issue 5203, 9 February 1892, Page 1

Train Impeding Insects.

Nearly every year there iiru accounts of trains being brought. to :i stand by insect pests, such as army worms, lent caterpillars, or locusts. The plants anil trees most frequently injured by these pests ineliule species of the following genera Quercus, juglans, frasinus, tilia, rosa, carya, pruiius. Acer, eratiegus, fagus li>|iiidambar, anil nyssa. According to the report of the United Slates 1 )epartment of Agriculture (Insect the gums and oaks are the greatest sullerers. The last, cases of trains stopped liy insects aretlnm reported Near Luberlon, North Carolina, the drainage of once swampy land In the cause assigned for a sudden and enormous increase in I lie iiuniher of tent, caterpillas (rUsim-nmpit ilitslrin), which not only stripped the leaves from oakn and minis for eight miles round, hut collected on (he railway line in such ipiantities as completely to stop it train. The wheels of the carriages went round as if the rails were; greased, and the track was completely hidden by millions of caterpillars, of which so many were crushed, that the stench arising from t.hem was described as unendurable. On another occasion, near Brighton Corners, New a similar stoppage to (radio was caused by enormous quantities of some water beetle, thought to be Beloslema, Dytiscus, or Hydrophilus, and attracted to the spot by electric light. The line for a length of some tlO feet, was covered with these creatures ; the train could pass over them lor but a little distances yet, the wheels crushed so many as to cause! a " number of loud, crackling noises like toy torpedos."