SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF STATE ENTOMOLOGIST 9 



GRASSHOPPERS 

 The State collection of insects contains upward of one hundred 

 species of Montana grasshoppers. With so many in the state it 

 is not strange that one or another of them becomes abundant and 

 injurious occasionally. In 1919 grasshoppers were .more than 

 usually injurious. Early in the season in May, reports began to 

 reach the office of a species which was appearing in alarming num- 

 bers in the far eastern part of the state. Specimens accompanying 

 mquiries turned out to be Eritetix tricarianata. Mr. Strand went 

 to the locality where this grasshopper was injurious in June and 

 advised with the farmers on its control. 



Later in the season, the w^arrior grasshopper (Cannula pel- 

 lucida) appeared in great numbers in most parts of the state. Our 

 notes show it to have been present in great numbers in Gallatin, 

 Missoula, and Beaverhead counties. In some localities this grass- 

 hopper was present in enormous numbers, migrating more or less 

 in the air and congregating in the foothills around the valleys for 

 ogg-laying purposes, where the ground was literally covered with 

 these insects busily engaged in boring into the earth and depositing 

 their pods of eggs. There can be little doubt that some trouble will 

 be experienced in 1920 from the grasshoppers originating from these 

 <iggs unless steps are taken to destroy either the eggs or the young 

 grasshoppers soon after hatching. While on a trip of searching for 

 the alfalfa weevil in the counties of Gallatin, Beaverhead, and Mad- 

 ison, Mr. Parker and Mr. Strand encountered large numbers of the 

 same species which was very abundant in Montana sixteen years 

 ago, namely, the big-headed grasshopper (Aulocara elliotti 

 Thomas). This is a true grass-feeding species and its occurrence 

 in large numbers is always important. It is one of Montana's worst 

 insect enemies to range grass. In earlier years I have seen the 

 range completely bared of grass by this species. 



It is a remarkable thing that grasshoppers of the Melanoplus 

 atlanis group which were very abundant and destructive in different 

 parts of Montana as recently as 1918, and especially one year earlier, 

 were not abundant in the state in any place so far as we know in 

 1919. In 1917 and 1918 when Melanoplus was abundant we 

 observed that wherever these insects were numerous, parasitic flies 

 were also present in great numbers. We believe that these flies 



