Rocky Mountain locust
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (September 2010) |
| Rocky Mountain locust | |
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| Species: | †M. spretus
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| †Melanoplus spretus Walsh, 1866
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The Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) was the locust species that ranged through almost the entire western half of the United States (and some western portions of Canada) until the end of the 19th century. Sightings often placed their swarms in numbers far larger than any other species of locust, with one famed sighting having been estimated at 198,000 square miles (513,000 km²) in size (greater than the area of California), weighing 27.5 million tons, and consisting of some 12.5 trillion insects - the greatest concentration of animals ever recorded, according to The Guinness Book of Records.[1]
But less than 30 years later, the species was apparently extinct, with the last recorded sighting of a live specimen in 1902 in southern Canada. And because no one expected such a ubiquitous creature to become extinct, very few samples were ever collected (though a few preserved remains have been found in Grasshopper Glacier, Montana). Though grasshoppers still cause significant crop damage today, their populations do not even approach the densities of true locusts. Had the Rocky Mountain locust continued to survive, North American agriculture would likely have had to adapt to its presence (North America is the only continent without a major locust outside of Antarctica).
Distribution
The locust largely afflicted prairie areas, though they existed on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. Breeding in sandy areas and thriving in hot and dry conditions, they were often guaranteed a good food supply by prairie plants concentrating sugars in their stalks in times of drought. Movement of the locusts was probably assisted by a low-level jet stream that persists through much of central North America.
Extinction
The last major swarms of Rocky Mountain locust were between 1873 and 1877, when the locust caused $200 million in crop damage in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and other states. The cause of their extinction was probably the plowing and irrigation by settlers that disrupted the natural life cycle of the insects in the very small areas they existed in between swarms.[2] Reports from this era suggest that farmers killed over 100 egg cases per square inch while plowing, harrowing or flooding.[3] Af After new theory by Kay uwe Böhm it is more likely than just plowing that new or increased plants from farmers could kill all like known locust killer neem tree with poison melantriol or much other known insect killer plants or still unkown plants maybe beetroot with poision oxaclic acid. "It does appear that the locust developed slowly/poorly on alfalfa, which was rather widely planted in the late 1800s. So, in part, the use of this plant which was nutritionally suboptimal (probably not ‘poisonous’) may well have contributed to the decline of the locust. Of course, it is not necessary for plowing (or any other single factor) to wipe out every last individual of a species in order for extinction to occur. Our best guess is that the Rocky Mountain locust existed as a meta-population (a network of pocketed populations in which there was limited exchange of individuals among watersheds). If so, then if a sufficient number of the nodes in the network were wiped out, there may have been too few insects to reestablish these populations and sustain the entire meta-population. And in this regard, alfalfa (or other agricultural plants that were not suitable for the locusts—although we don’t have any indication of other such plants) could have contributed to the demise of the species. (please provide source)" answer on the new theory by JLockwood 2011.
"All good questions… The official expert of course is Jeff Lockwood at the University of Wyoming
Plant compounds may play a role in hindering populations , but ultimately it’s a game of numbers. Need a large “sink” population to maintain a population, and for them to expand, suitable habitat must exist. The Rocky Mountain Locust may have had very tight/restricted soil nutrient issues that we are unaware of…. And for African locusts… eg Locusta migratoria that do make it to the European continent, proper habitat or microhabitat requirements are not present for them to establish… For example there have been numerous cases of Schistocerca gregaria showing up in Florida, but to my knowledge still have not established. Does this help to answer your question??" on the new theory.
Charles R. Bomar PhD Applied Science Program Director Executive Director, Orthopterists' Society Professor of Biology 331D Jarvis Hall University of Wisconsin-Stout Menomonie, WI 54751 Email 2011.
Because locusts are a form of grasshopper that appear when grasshopper populations reach high densities, it was theorized that M. spretus might not be extinct, that "solitary phase" individuals of a migratory grasshopper might be able to turn into the Rocky Mountain locust given the right conditions. However, breeding experiments using many grasshopper species in high-density environments have attempted to invoke the famous insect without success. Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from museum specimens and related species suggests that the Rocky Mountain locust was a distinct and now extinct species, possibly closely related to the Bruner spurthroat grasshopper (Melanoplus bruneri).[4]
In fiction
A fictionalized description of the migration of Rocky Mountain locusts in the 1870s can be found in On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane.
See also
Notes
- ^ http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Melanoplus_spretus.html Melanoplus spretus, Rocky Mountain grasshopper. Animal Diversity Web. University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Last accessed 2009-04-16
- ^ Lockwood, Jeffrey A. 2004. Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier. Basic Books, New York. ISBN 0-7382-0894-9
- ^ "Locust" pp. 11-12
- ^ Chapco, W. & Litzenberger, G. (2004): A DNA investigation into the mysterious disappearance of the Rocky Mountain grasshopper, mega-pest of the 1800s. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 30(3): 810–814. doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00209-4
References
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (August 2010) |
- Ryckman, Lisa Levitt (1999). The Great Locust Mystery. Colorado Millennium 2000. Denver Rocky Mountain News, June 22, 1999. Retrieved 9-SEP-2006.
- Samways, M. J. & Lockwood, J. A. (1998): Orthoptera conservation: pests and paradoxes. Journal of Insect Conservation 2(3-4): 143–149. doi:10.1023/A:1009652016332 (HTML abstract)