150 JOSEPH HALL BODINE 
with a loss of 30 to 35 per cent in body weight. On the other 
hand, Melanophis differentiahs, a larger species, survives com- 
plete starvation approximately 96 hours, and with water alone, 
about 172 hours with a loss in body weight of 20 to 25 per cent. 
Hibernating nymphs of Chortophaga with nothing to eat, at 
temperatures from 0° to 9°C., can survive only a little more 
than two weeks; at 23° they live about one week, and at 38° 
only three to four days. The maximum loss in weight up to 
death ranges from 20 to 25 per cent. Such a short survival 
period for the grasshopper is in marked contrast with that found 
for certain insects and related forms. Dufour (11) for example, 
kept bedbugs for a year without food, while Riley and Johannsen 
(12) cite examples where certain ticks were kept for over three 
years with nothing to eat. 
The changes brought about by starvation in the body weight, 
water, and solids of the grasshopper are rather striking as the 
following results show. In all experiments adult animals were 
used and were weighed at twenty-four-hour intervals at the same 
time each day. The number for Melanoplus f. rubrum is 250, 
and for Melanoplus differentiahs, 75. Room temperature during 
the experiments remained at 22° to 25°C. Table 5 gives the 
percentage losses in body weight, water, and solids for different- 
sized individuals and for the two sexes of Melanoplus f. rubrum, 
during seventy-two hours of starvation, wdth and without water. 
Figure 2, taken from this table, shows the average losses in body 
weight and water, and figure 3 gives the average percentage 
loss in weight and also the average percentage loss in weight 
per day or the rate of loss, with w^ater alone, for Melanoplus 
differentiahs. 
From an examination of these data we find that losses in body 
weight during starvation are marked, and that they increase, 
progressively as starvation proceeds up to a maximum for the 
species. The rate of loss, indicated in figure 3, is greatest, 
however, during the first forty-eight hours and diminishes subse- 
quently up to the end of the experiment. Losses in water, as 
shown in figure 2, are always relatively greater than those in 
weight, and maintain this same general relation throughout 
