The Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus) is an extinctspecies of grasshopper that ranged through the western half of the United States and some western portions of Canada with large numbers seen until the end of the 19th century. Sightings often placed their swarms in numbers far larger than any other locust species, with one famous sighting in 1875 estimated at 198,000 square miles (510,000km2) 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 speculatively guessed, according to Guinness World Records.[5]
Less than 30 years later, the species was apparently extinct. The last recorded sighting of a live specimen was in 1902 in southern Canada.[6] As a creature so ubiquitous was not expected to become extinct, very few specimens were ever collected (though a few preserved remains have been found in Knife Point Glacier, Wyoming and Grasshopper Glacier, Montana).[7]
Rocky Mountain locusts were a part of the diet of the critically endangered or possibly extinctEskimo curlew (Numenius borealis) on its spring migration and the extinction of the locust has been speculated as being a factor in the decline of the curlew.
Taxonomy
The species name was formally published with the Latin binomial Caloptenus spretus in 1866 by B.D. Walsh as named by "Mr. Uhler, without describing it," adding that "The name 'spretus' means 'despised', and refers apparently to its having been hitherto despised or overlooked by Entomologists".[8] Walsh does not provide a description of the species, except for female wing length, as well as some aspects of biology, ecology, and control. Some entomologists credit the authority for the binomial Caloptenus spretus to C. Thomas,[9] but fails on the Principle of Priority.[3][4] The treatment under the genus Melanoplus began in 1878 in publications by S. H. Scudder who pointed out the difference between the genus Caloptenus that he noted as being more correctly spelled Calliptenus and Melanoplus.[10][11][12]
The species is reported to have descended from the Rocky Mountains to the prairie in large numbers only in certain years, particularly in dry seasons, following westward wind currents. Outbreaks usually lasted two consecutive years. Although a great number of eggs were laid on the prairie during outbreak years, individuals hatched from these eggs usually did not thrive, a condition that has been attributed to the lack of adaptation of this species to prairie habitats.[13] A 2004 molecular phylogenetic study that used mitochondrial DNA from specimens obtained from museums and fragments preserved in frozen glacial deposits confirms the placement in the genus Melanoplus and the distinctiveness as a species (i.e., not a migratory form of an extant species). It also identified the closest living relative as Melanoplus bruneri rather than M. sanguinipes as had been earlier surmised.[14]
Distribution and habitat
Illustration of egg-laying by females (1877)
The Rocky Mountain locust occurred along both sides of the Rocky Mountains and in most of the prairie areas. Breeding in sandy areas and thriving in hot and dry conditions, it has been hypothesized that they may have depended on the tall grass prairie plants during drier spells. The destruction of the prairie habitat and the incursion of new flora and fauna along with agricultural practices may have led to the extinction of the species.[15] Large numbers of grasshoppers including a large number of Rocky Mountain locusts entombed in the ice in the Rocky Mountains gave their name to the Grasshopper Glacier.
Extinction
Rocky Mountain locusts caused farm damage in Maine from 1743 to 1756 and Vermont in 1797–1798.[16] The locusts became more of a problem in the 19th century, as farming expanded westward into the grasshoppers' favored habitat. Outbreaks of varying severity emerged in 1828, 1838, 1846, and 1855, affecting areas throughout the West. Plagues visited Minnesota in 1856–1857 and again in 1865, and Nebraska suffered repeated infestations between 1856 and 1874.[16]
1875 cartoon by Henry Worrall showing Kansas farmers battling giant grasshoppers
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. One farmer reported that the locusts seemed "like a great, white glistening cloud, for their wings caught the sunshine on them and made them look like a cloud of white vapor" while another described the experience as "a big snowstorm, where the air was filled with enormous-size flakes.”[16] The locusts ate not only the grass and valuable crops, but also leather, wood, sheep's wool, and—in extreme cases—even clothes off peoples' backs. Trains were sometimes brought to a halt after skidding over large numbers of locusts run over on the rails.[17][15] As the swarms worsened, farmers attempted to control them using gunpowder, fires (sometimes dug in trenches to burn as many of the locusts as possible), smearing them with "hopperdozers", a type of plow device pulled behind horses that had a shield that knocked jumping locusts into a pan of liquid poison or fuel, even sucking them into vacuum cleaner–like contraptions, but all of these were ultimately ineffective in stopping the hordes.
Charles Valentine Riley, a Missouri entomologist, came up with a recipe for locusts seasoned with salt and pepper and pan-fried in butter. The recipe sold, but some stated that they "would just as soon starve as eat those horrible creatures."[16] Farmers finally responded in force to the swarm's destruction; an 1877 Nebraska law said that anyone between the ages of 16 and 60 had to work at least two days eliminating locusts at hatching time or face a $10 fine. That same year Missouri offered a bounty of $1 a bushel for locusts collected in March, 50 cents a bushel in April, 25 cents in May, and 10 cents in June. Other Great Plains states made similar bounty offers. In the 1880s, farmers had recovered sufficiently from their locust woes to be able to send carloads of corn to flood victims in Ohio. They also switched to such resilient crops as winter wheat, which matured in the early summer, before locusts were able to migrate. These new agricultural practices effectively reduced the threat of locusts and greatly contributed to the species' downfall.[16]
It has been hypothesized that plowing and irrigation by settlers as well as trampling by cattle and other farm animals near streams and rivers in the Rocky Mountains destroyed their eggs in the areas they permanently lived, which ultimately caused their demise.[18] For example, reports from this era suggest that farmers killed over 150 egg cases per square inch while plowing, harrowing or flooding.[18]:11–12 It appeared that this species lived and reproduced in the prairie only temporarily during swarming years, with each generation being smaller than the previous one and swarming ever further from the Rocky Mountains,[19] while the permanent breeding grounds of this species seemed to be restricted to an area somewhere between 3 and 3,000 square miles (7.8 and 7,770.0 square kilometres) of sandy soils near streams and rivers in the Rockies, which coincided with arable and pastoral lands exploited by settlers.[18]
As 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 environmental conditions; however, breeding experiments using many grasshopper species in high-density environments failed to invoke the famous insect. The status of M. spretus as a distinct species was confirmed by a 2004 DNA analysis of North American species of the genus Melanoplus.[14]
Melanoplus spretus was formally declared extinct by the IUCN in 2014.[1] It has been suggested that the now critically endangered Eskimo curlew fed on the locust during its spring migration and that its extinction may have added to the pressures on already declining curlew populations including hunting and the conversion of its grassland habitat to agriculture.[20][21]
In culture
Inscription above the door of the Grasshopper Chapel
Assumption Chapel in Cold Spring, Minnesota, was established as a Christian pilgrimage shrine (German: Wallfahrtsort)[22] (German: Gnadenkapelle)[23][24] in 1877 by German-American Catholic pioneer farmers, supposedly to keep away future locust plagues similar to those they had faced in both the 1850s and the 1870s. The Feast Day of St. Magnus of Füssen, who is traditionally known in Southern Germany as one of the protectors of farmers from thunderstorms and plagues of vermin, on September 6 was locally celebrated as "Grasshopper Day".[25]
A fictionalized description of the devastation created by Rocky Mountain locusts in the 1870s can be found in the 1937 novel On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Her description was based on actual incidents in western Minnesota during the summers of 1874 and 1875 as the locusts destroyed her family's wheat crop.[28]
Another vivid portrayal of the depredations of the locust can be found in Ole Edvart Rølvaag's Giants in the Earth, based in part on his own experiences and those of his wife's family.[29]
In 2018, a chamber opera about the Rocky Mountain locust named Locust: The Opera premiered in Wyoming, USA. The libretto for the opera was written by professor and author Jeffrey Lockwood who adapted it from his book Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier.[30][31]
Mormon cricket – another large, swarming orthopteran native to western North America
Passenger pigeon – another example of rapid anthropogenic extinction of a North American species
Related Research Articles
Locusts are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious. No taxonomic distinction is made between locust and grasshopper species; the basis for the definition is whether a species forms swarms under intermittently suitable conditions; this has evolved independently in multiple lineages, comprising at least 18 genera in 5 different subfamilies.
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
Grasshopper Glacier is in the Beartooth Mountains, Custer National Forest, Montana, U.S. The glacier is within the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, a part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Grasshopper Glacier is approximately 0.20 miles (0.32 km) long and 0.25 mi (0.40 km) wide. Starting at a point more than 11,300 feet (3,400 m) above sea level, the glacier originally was more than 5 mi (8.0 km) long but has receded significantly since first researched in the early 20th century. As of 2007, the glacier consists of several smaller glaciers, each occupying a different north-facing cirque. Grasshopper Glacier was named for the tens of millions of grasshoppers (locusts) that have been found entombed in the ice, some for hundreds and perhaps thousands of years. Many of the grasshoppers are of species that are now extinct, and their high level of preservation allowed early researchers to send some specimens to entomologists for identification. During this research it was discovered that some of the grasshoppers were of the extinct species Melanoplus spretus, known to have existed at least up to the beginning of the 20th century.
Melanoplus is a large genus of grasshoppers. They are the typical large grasshoppers in North America. A common name is spur-throat grasshoppers, but this more typically refers to members of the related subfamily Catantopinae.
Knife Point Glacier is on the east side Continental Divide in the northern Wind River Range in the U.S. state of Wyoming. The glacier is in the Fitzpatrick Wilderness of Shoshone National Forest, and is among the largest grouping of glaciers in the American Rocky Mountains. Knife Point Glacier flows to the north and starts below the summit of Knife Point Mountain.
Albert's swarm was an immense concentration of the Rocky Mountain locust that swarmed the Western United States in 1875. It was named after Albert Child, a physician interested in meteorology, who calculated the size of the swarm to 198,000 square miles (510,000 km2) by multiplying the swarm's estimated speed with the time it took for it to move through southern Nebraska.
Melanoplus bivittatus, the two-striped grasshopper, is a poikilothermic species of grasshopper belonging to the genus Melanoplus. It is commonly found in North America, with high quantities inhabiting Canadian prairies and farmland.
Sigaus is a genus of grasshoppers in the tribe Catantopini that is endemic to New Zealand. All but one Sigaus species is endemic to the South Island: Sigaus piliferus is the only North Island representative and is the type species. Most species in this genus are restricted to alpine habitats. All are wingless and make no sounds.
Melanoplini is a tribe of spur-throated grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. There are about 19 genera and more than 200 described species in Melanoplini, all in North America. Their biogeography shows that many species in the tribe have descendants from the Eocene epoch and Miocene epoch.
Melanoplus complanatipes, the western sagebrush grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in Central America and North America.
Melanoplus chiricahuae, the Chiricahua short-wing grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in North America.
Melanoplus stonei, known generally as the Stone's grasshopper or Stone's locust, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in North America.
Melanoplus islandicus, known generally as island short-wing grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. Other common names include the forest locust and island locust. It is found in North America.
Melanoplus militaris, the military spur-throat grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in North America.
Melanoplus devastator, the devastating grasshopper, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in North America.
Melanoplus frigidus, known generally as the Nordic mountain grasshopper or narrow-winged locust, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in Europe and Northern Asia.
Bradynotes is a genus of spur-throated grasshoppers in the family Acrididae. There is at least one described species in Bradynotes, B. obesa, also known as the "slow mountain grasshopper" and "mountain lubber grasshopper". It is found in North America, in the western United States and northwestern Mexico.
Melanoplus viridipes, the Green-legged Locust, is a species of spur-throated grasshopper in the family Acrididae. It is found in North America.
The Locust Plague of 1874, or the Grasshopper Plague of 1874, occurred in the summer of 1874 when hordes of Rocky Mountain locusts invaded the Great Plains in the United States and Canada. The locusts swarmed over an estimated 2,000,000 square miles (5,200,000 km2) and caused millions of dollars' worth of damage. Residents described swarms so thick that they covered the sun for up to six hours.
1 2 Lockwood, Jeffrey A.; Debrey, Larry D. (1990). "A Solution for the Sudden and Unexplained Extinction of the Rocky Mountain Grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae)". Environmental Entomology. 19 (5): 1194–1205. doi:10.1093/ee/19.5.1194.
1 2 3 Lockwood, Jeffrey A. (2004). Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier (1sted.). New York: Basic Books. ISBN978-0-7382-0894-7.
↑ Janice Wedl, O.S.B. (2005), A Dwelling Place for God: The History of St. Mary, Help of Christians Parish, St. Augusta, Minnesota, North Star Press, St. Cloud, Minnesota. Pages 110-113.
↑ Fr. Robert J. Voigt (1991), The Story of Mary and the Grasshoppers, Cold Spring, Minnesota. Page 25.
Samways, M. J.; Lockwood, J. A. (1 January 1998). "Orthoptera conservation: pests and paradoxes". Journal of Insect Conservation. 2 (3/4): 143–149. doi:10.1023/A:1009652016332. S2CID25949134.
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