Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T18:39:29.139Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Wheat Crops and Native Prairie in Relation to the Nutritional Ecology of Camnula pellucida (Scudder) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in Saskatchewan1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

R. Pickford
R. Pickford
Affiliation:
Entomology Section, Canada Agriculture Research Station Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Field cage experiments conducted through the complete life cycle of Camnula pellucida (Scudder) demonstrated that wheat, the major cereal crop grown in Saskatchewan, played the dominant role in the nutritional ecology of this grasshopper. A native sod mixture, comprising Stipa comata, Bouteloua gracilis, Agropyron smithii, and Carex eleocharis, four of the dominant species of the mixed prairie association, was consistently unfavourable during all stages of grasshopper growth and development. Grasshoppers reared on wheat survived better, were considerably larger and laid up to 20 times more eggs than those reared on the native prairie grasses. The presence of the native sod with wheat contributed nothing nutritionally to the food combination. The unfavourable qualities of the native grasses, although resulting in small adults, low fecundity and small pods, did not affect the hatchability of eggs laid or the development and survival of nymphs that hatched from them.

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 95 , Issue 7 , July 1963 , pp. 764 - 770
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1963

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

Bird, R. D. 1961. Ecology of the aspen parkland of Western Canada. Can. Dept. Agric. Pub. 1066.Google Scholar
Coupland, R. T. 1950. Ecology of mixed prairie in Canada. Ecol. Monogr. 20: 271–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Criddle, N. 1933. Notes on the habits of injurious grasshoppers in Manitoba. Canad. Ent. 65: 97–102.Google Scholar
Misra, S. D. 1956. Nutritional ecology of the clear-winged grasshopper, Camnula pellucida (Scudd.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of Saskatchewan.Google Scholar
Nichols, C. F. 1958. A sectional insectary structurally adaptable to changing requirements. Canad. Ent. 90: 246–248.Google Scholar
Pickford, R. 1958. Observations on the reproductive potential of Melanoplus bilituratus (Wlk.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) reared on different food plants in the laboratory. Canad. Ent. 90: 483–485.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickford, R. (in preparation). Observations on the biology of Camnula pellucida (Scudder) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) with special reference to survival and reproduction under different weather conditions.Google Scholar
Putnam, L. G. 1962. Experiments with some native and introduced plants as foods for Camnula pellucida (Scudd.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in Western Canada. Canad. J. Plant Sci. 42: 589–595.Google Scholar
Riegert, P. W., Pickford, R., and Putnam, L. G.. (in preparation). Outbreaks of Camnula pellucida (Scudder) (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in relation to native grasslands in Saskatchewan.Google Scholar