Rocky Mountain locust

Rocky Mountain Locust ( Melanoplus spretus )

The Rocky Mountain Locust ( Melanoplus spretus ) or Rocky Mountain locust was the largest grasshopper, which was widespread in the late 19th century in the Midwestern United States and parts of Canada. It is now considered extinct. The last sighting of a live copy was made in 1902.

Occurrence and accumulation

The Rocky Mountain Locust preference was invading prairies, but was found on both sides of the Rocky Mountains. Good breeding conditions were the horrors in sandy areas where they thrived very well in hot and dry climatic conditions. In times of drought the prairie vegetation concentrates their sugar in the drink, which afforded an excellent food source for the horrors. The heat, the animals grew rapidly and they moved probably on the Jetstream, the dash through the central North America.

The swarms were of greater extent than they had ever been seen in other locusts. A famous report of AL Child from 1875, Charles Riley published in 1880 in the Second annual report of the United States Entomological Commission, estimates a swarm of over Plattsmouth, Nebraska, hinwegzog in five days, to a length of 3000 km (1880 miles ) and a width of 175 km (110 miles). This would correspond with about 520,000 km ² more than the area of California. The swarm consisted of an estimated 12.5 trillion individuals, with a mass of 27.5 million tons.

Preserved remains of the animals were found in glaciers in Montana and Wyoming, this was the result of crossing the Rocky Mountains through the schools. The animals from Knife Point Glacier in northwestern Wyoming have been dated using the radiocarbon method at the beginning of the 17th century.

Disappearance

It is still not been satisfactorily explained why the Rocky Mountain Locust extinct. Some theories are based on the assumption that the plowing and irrigating the fields have severely disrupted by settlers to the natural life cycle of grasshoppers. The last great swarms originated in the 1870s. About 30 years later died of the species; the last surviving animal was found in 1902 in the south of Canada. If the grasshopper not died, she would have the North American agriculture is likely to severely impaired.

Since the walking phase of locusts is formed only under high population densities, there was speculation the Rocky Mountain grasshopper could possibly be grown under such conditions from the solitary phase of still existing related Grasshopper, but such attempts were unsuccessful. How DNA studies suggest based on museum specimens, the Rocky Mountain Locust was probably a distinct species from the other species and is therefore definitely extinct.

Even today not cause other Grasshopper species had significant adverse effects the yield of crops in North America, but to the extent as would cause the Rocky Mountain Locust.