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 AGRIDIDAE 

 Melanoplus frigidus (Boheman). 



A single 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 

 frigidum (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 d'ata on this change in a paper which will be published 

 shortly." 1 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. 2 



Three other species of Orthoptera are definitely recorded from the Arctic 

 regions of North America. These are Gomphocerus clavatus Thomas, Melanoplus 

 borealis (Fieber) and M. fasciatus (Barnston- Walker) . 



Gomphocerus clavatus was recorded by Caudell (loc. tit.} 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 borealis has been until very recently considered as a typically 

 arctic form. It has been recorded from Greenland (Fieber, Lotos, III, 1853), 



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). 



2 Hebard (op. cit.) states that the recently described Podisma prossenii Puschnig from the Eisenhut in 

 Carinthia is also a Melanoplus. 



