pdf - Entomological Society of Canada

(mainly Melanoplusfemurrubrumfemurrubrum (De Geer), and have suffered
more or less from their depredations" (see also Riley 1875, 1877b). As regards
the local importance in Massachusetts, of "Acrydium femur-rubrum"
(probably both Melanoplus femurrubrum femurrubrum and M. sanguinipes
sanguinipes (Fabricius) were involved), he says, "These, in certain seasons,
almost entirely consume the grass of these [salt] marshes from whenceth ey
[sic] then take their course to the uplands, devouring in their way, grass,
corn, and vegetables, until checked by the early frosts... It is stated that,
in Maine, during dry seasons, they often appear in great multitudes, and are
greedy destroyers of the half-parched herbage."
About the time that T. W. Harris was becoming involved with entomology,
so was a young English immigrant to Newfoundland, Philip Henry
Gosse. At the age of 17, in 1827, he obtained a post there at Carbonear.
As recorded by Bruton (1930) and Weiss (1936), his interest in natural history
received added stimulus in 1832, and he painted insects, including orthopteroids,
that he collected there. He left Newfoundland in 1835 and spent
3 years, until 1838, at Compton in the Eastern Townships of Quebec, before
departing for the United States and then returning to England. While at
Compton, he began a book on the entomology of Newfoundland, which,
however, was never published. After his departure from Quebec, Gosse (1840)
published the first book exclusively on Canadian natural history, based on
his experience at Compton, in which he mentioned various tettigonioid grigs,
two of which he vaguely named: "Phyl!opterus Myrtifolius ?" (probably
Scudderia furcata furcata Brunner von Wattenwyl) and "Locusta?"
(Conocephalus sp., probably C. fasciatus (De Geer)).
About this time the first record of the lesser earwig, Labia minor
(Linnaeus), from the northeastern United States was published, when Doubleday
(1838) reported it from Wanborough, New York. Further records of
orthopteroids were not published for New York until some years later, when
Fitch (1847) listed about 10 saltatorial species from the state. There was apparently
an outbreak of grasshoppers or locusts in Minnesota in 1842 (Packard
1878; Lugger 1898) but it does not seem to have affected Canada. In 1845,
Leon (later I'Abbe) Provancher began collecting insects at Becancourt,
Quebec, but his calling put a stop to this in 1846, and he did not take up
entomology again for another 11 years (Comeau 1965). There is no reason
to believe that his earliest collecting involved orthopteroids.
Toward the end of the fifth decade of the nineteenth century two further
expeditions to the Canadian Arctic took place following the disappearance
of the ill-fated Franklin expedition of 1845. A narrative of the first of these,
in 1846 and 1847, is given by Rae (1850), and that for the second, in 1848
and 1849, by Richardson (1851). Both Rae and Richardson brought back
insect specimens to the United Kingdom, and some, at least, of these are
still preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), London. A. White
(1851) lists material from both collectors, but only two species of orthopteroids
are named, both from the same two localities, the "Borders
(i.e., margins) of Mackenzie and Slave Rivers," and Fort Simpson (61 0 30'N).
In addition, four unnamed species of "Locusta" are recorded from the first
of these localities. The named species were "Acrydium granulatum"
(= Tetrix subulata (Linnaeus)) and "Locusta tuberculata" (= Pardalophora
18