Orthoptera Collected in the Canadian Arctic. 
By E. M. Walker. 
University of Toronto. 
No orthoptera were received among the insects collected by the Canadian 
Arctic Expedition 1913-18, but we have received a single grasshopper collected 
by Mr. V. Stefansson in 1911. The following is a note on this insect: 
FAMILY ACRIDIDAE 
Melanoplus frigidus (Boheman). 
A siAgle female of this species in poor condition, bears label giving the 
following data: 
"No. 1670 [F. J.]. Langton bay (Franklin bay), Northwest Territories, 
summer of 1911. V. Stefansson." 
In a note to the writer Dr. R. M. Anderson states that "This specimen, 
brought to us with other insect specimens in 1914 from our old house at Langton 
bay by a former Eskimo employee, while taken in the Langton bay region, was 
most probably picked up from twenty to forty miles inland on the Horton river, 
south side of the Melville mountains, a range of hills about 1,000 feet high, skirt- 
ing the south side of Franklin bay." 
The capture of this Palaearctic species in the above locality was not unex- 
pected as several specimens were taken by Mr. J. M. Jessup on the International 
boundary, Alaska, lat. 69° 20' N., long. 141° W., on Aug. 8, 1912 (Caudell, 
Can. Ent., vol. XLVII, 1915, p. 160). 
On account of the difficulty of determining species of this group from the 
female sex alone, the writer submitted this specimen to Mr. Morgan Hebard, who 
is engaged in a revision of the Melanopli. I had determined it as Podisma 
frigiduin (Boheman) with some doubt, as it differs slightly in the form of the 
valves of the ovipositor from the single female European specimen I have of this 
species, but Mr. Hebard has confirmed the determination. In a letter to the 
writer he says "You will note the transfer of this species to the genus Melanoplus. 
I am bringing out the data on this change in a paper which will be published 
shortly."^ I have been likewise of the opinion, for some time, that this species 
is a true Melanoplus, and it is of special interest as being the only species of this 
genus known from the Old World, where it is widely distributed in northern 
regions, having been taken in Norway, Lapland and Siberia, and as a glacial 
relict in the Swiss Alps and the Tyrol.^ 
, Three other species of Orthoptera are definitely recorded from the Arctic 
regions of North America. These are Gornphocerus clavatus Thomas, Melanoplus 
horealis (Fieber) and M. fasciatus (Barnston-Walker) . 
Gomphocerus clavatus was recorded by Caudell (loc. cit.) from the same 
locality in Alaska where M. frigidus was taken. It is a widely distributed 
species, ranging from eastern Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains and southward 
to Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico. It is found at high elevations 
in the mountains of Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and New Mexico. The genus 
Gomphocerus is of Palaearctic origin, G. clavatus being the only American species. 
Melanoplus horealis has been until very recently considered as a typically 
arctic form. It has been recorded from Greenland (Fieber, Lotos, III, 1853), 
'Since the above was written a preliminary discussion of this subject has appeared in the following 
paper by Mr. Hebard' New Genera and Species of Melanopli found within the United States. (Trans. 
Am. Ent. Soc, XIV, pp. 257-298, 1919). 
^Hebard (op. cit.) states that the recently described Podisma prossenii Puschnig from the Eisenhut in 
Carinthia is also a Melanoplus. 
