V-D-12 



Smalley, A.E. 1960. Energy flow of a salt marsh grasshopper population. 

 Ecology 41:672-677. 



Analysis of communities by measuring the energy transformations of 

 constituent populations is largely untried. Some energy flow measurements 

 of entire ecosystems have been successfully undertaken, and a laboratory 

 population has been the subject of study. This paper describes a study 

 of the energy flow of a natural population of a grasshopper, Orchelimum 

 fidicinium Rehn and Hebard, in salt marshes near Sapelo Island, Georgia. 



Population density, growth rates, respiratory rates, caloric content, 

 and rates of defecation were determined. Using these measurements, 

 rates of ingestion, production, energy loss by respiration, and defecation 

 were estimated for the population on an area basis. Over an annual 

 cycle of about 100 days, production was 10.8 kcal/mVyi^; total energy 

 flow was 29.4 kcal/m^/yr; and ingestion of Spartina alterniflora , the 

 grasshopper's sole source of food, was 107 kcal/m-^/yr. 



Less than 1 percent of the Spartina was eaten by Orchelimum in the 

 area studied. There are few primary consumers that eat the living, 

 growing grass; there are a few species of Fulgoridae and some flies 

 whose larvae may eat Spartina . Most of the Spartina production is 

 passed on to decomposers in the marsh and surrounding water. (B.W.) 



Keywords: grasshoppers, salt marshes, energy flow, Georgia 



V-D-13 



Lane, R.S. 1969. The insect fauna of a coastal salt marsh. M.S. Thesis. 

 San Francisco State College. 78 pp. 



The study was designed to survey the insect fauna of a salt marsh 

 located near Dumbarton Point in Fremont, Alameda County, California. 

 Comprehensive data were obtained by sweeping the dominant plant 

 species-- Spartina foliosa , Salicornia pacifica , and Distichlis spicata- - 

 on ten dates during the period July 4 to December 3, 1968. These 

 plants were separated vertically and occurred in relatively homogeneous 

 stands. Locally and typically, S. foliosa occupied the lower littoral, 

 and D^. spicata the upper littoraT. Other collecting methods, such 

 as aerial net, blacklight trap, corer, and collander, were employed 

 to a limited degree to sample air, soil, and water. 



It was found that 80 percent of all insects caught by sweeping were 

 from S^. foliosa . The most prevalent orders were Diptera and Homoptera, 

 which ranked highest in abundance on each type of vegetation. Other 

 orders that were present within each zone, but in considerably fewer 

 numbers, were Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and Hymenoptera. Information 



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