Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:21:12.202Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quantities of Food eaten by the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.), in Relation to Growth

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

P. M. Davey
P. M. Davey
Affiliation:
Anti-Locust Research Centre.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The weight of fresh grass eaten by Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.) on each day of its development from hatching until maturation of the adults was investigated. Hoppers in all instars ate on the average about one gram per gram body-weight per day on the middle days of the instars and the adults ate approximately half-a-gram per gram body-weight each day. The percentage of food assimilated, calculated from the dry faeces and estimated dry weight of food eaten, falls from about 78 in the first to 35 in the fifth instar. There were some indication that the food consumption per hopper increases with the number of hoppers per cage.

The weight of wheat bran eaten by hoppers was also investigated. The amount eaten by hoppers on the middle day of the first instar is approximately the same, in relation to their body weight, as that eaten per day just before and just after moulting by those in the fourth and fifth instars. More is eaten in the middle of these instars.

Measurements of weights and lengths of males and females in the hopper instars and of the weights of adults showed that in the course of their development females become progressively heavier and larger than males. The weight of a newly-hatched hopper is about 10 mg.; a female fledgling weighs about 2 gm. and a male 1·5 gm. Hoppers are approximately 1 cm. long on hatching, and males on reaching maturity are about 4·5 cm. long and females about 5.0 cm.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Bulletin of Entomological Research , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , September 1954 , pp. 539 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1954

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bodenheimer, F. S. & Others (1929). Studien zur Epidemiologie, Ökologie u. Physiologie der afrikanischen Wanderheuschrecke (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.)—Z. angew. Ent., 15, pp. 435–557, 55 figs.Google Scholar
Brown, E. S. (1947). The distribution and vegetation of egg-laying sites of the Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forsk.) in Tripolitania in 1946.—Bull. Soc. Fouad Ent., 31, pp. 287–306, 4 pls., 3 tables, 2 maps.Google Scholar
Chauvin, R. (1941). Contribution à l'é;tude physiologique du criquet pèlerin et du dé;terminisme des phé;nomènes gré;gaires.—Ann. Soc. ent. Fr., 110, pp. 133–272. 23 figs.Google Scholar
Clark, E. J. (1948). Studies in the ecology of British grasshoppers.—Trans. R. ent. Soc. Lond., 99, pp. 173–222, 1 fig.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, P. E. (1951). The marching behaviour of hoppers of the African Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria migratorioides R. & F.) in the laboratory.—Anti-Locust Bull., no. 7, [4+] 46 pp., 32 figs.Google Scholar
Gunn, D. L., Perry, F.C. & Others (1948). Behaviour of the Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forskål) in Kenya in relation to aircraft spraying.—Anti-Locust Bull., no. 3, [2+] 70 pp., 8 pls., 21 figs.Google Scholar
Gunn, D. L. (1952). Field tests of dry baiting against the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.).—Bull. ent. Res., 42, pp. 675–690. 6 figs.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Husain, M. A. & Mathur, C. B. (1944). Studies in Schistocerca gregaria Forsk. XI. The influence of temperature on the growth in weight and size of the hoppers.—Indian J. Ent., 5, pp. 107–115, 1 graph.Google Scholar
Husain, M. A., Mathur, C. B. & Roonwal, M.L. (1949). Studies on Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål). XIII. Food and feeding habits of the Desert Locust.—Indian J. Ent., 8, (1946), pp. 141–163, 4 figs.Google Scholar
Karandikar, K. R. (1933). Annual report of the Locust Research Laboratory Pasni (Baluchistan), for the year 1932.—39 pp.—Simla, Govt. India Pr.Google Scholar
Kent-Jones, D. W. & Amos, A. J. (1947). Modern cereal chemistry.—4th edn., pp. 1–2; Liverpool, Northern Publ. Co.Google Scholar
Richards, P. B. (1930). Memorandum on locust control operations in the United Provinces.—In Locust control, pp. 12–60. Allahabad, Govt. Pr.Google Scholar
Weinman, C. J. & Decker, G. C. (1949). Chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides used alone and in combinations for grasshopper control.—J. econ. Ent., 42, 135–142, 1 graph.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weis-Fogh, T. (1952). Fat combustion and metabolic rate of flying locusts (Schistocerca gregaria Forskål).—Phil. Trans., (B), 237, no. 640, 36 pp. 12 figs.Google Scholar