GRASSHOPPERS — GURNEY AND BROOKS 



73 



Figure 17. — Distribution of male specimans of Mdanoplus borealis borealis examined from 



Alaska and Canada. 



rolling, treeless, Arctic tundra that consisted of damp, cold sphagnum 

 which thawed only from 11 to 19 inches during summer. Plants 

 present there included Labrador tea, blueberry, grasses, sedges, and 

 others. Readers interested in the limits of the true Arctic Zone are 

 referred to Kimble and Good (1955) and Munroe (1956). 



CaudeU (1900) suspected borealis of being localized in Alaska, after 

 the collector of the specimens he reported, T. Kincaid, found it in 

 a sphagnum swamp at Kukak Bay, but nowhere else in the surround- 

 ing countryside. The only habitat notes from Labrador which have 

 been seen are those of Scudder (1897b, p. 272), who reported that 

 a collector described finding borealis abundant in luxuriant plants 

 beside a mountain brook. 



In the United States and southern Canada borealis has been found 

 most often in cool, damp situations, as discussed by Blatchley (1920) 

 and Morse (1920), but, while it appears to enjoy bogs and areas of 

 sedges and other plants found in mountain meadows, it also occurs 

 in moist open pastures and mowed fields in New England (Gurney 

 1935). Cantrall (1943) considered it a characteristic inhabitant of 

 "the leatherleaf stratum of the bog habitat" in southern Michigan. 

 In the prairie provinces of Canada the subspecies inhabits tall rank 

 vegetation on the borders of streams and ponds within a forested 

 area. Similar situations in the open grasslands are not occupied. 

 The distribution is therefore local in grassland areas. 



The biology of borealis borealis has not been studied fully. Nymphs 

 are described by Handford (1946). It has been suggested that in 



