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(i.e., Martin Falls) (as "Oedipoda phoenicoptera") and by Lieut.-Col.
Hawkins from "Vancouver's Island" (as "0. rugosa"); Chorthippus
curtipennis curtipennis (Harris) from "Hudson's Bay" (Martin Falls)
collected by Barnston, and from Newfoundland, presented by a Prof.
Shephard; and Tetrix subulata (Linnaeus) (as "Tettix granulata") and
T. ornata (Say) from "Hudson's Bay" (= Martin Falls).
One of the pioneer entomologists of Canada was William Couper, who
came to Canada from England in 1842, and who first collected Canadian
insects of "all orders," no later than 1843 (Baillie 1929), but if any orthopteroids
were among them (and there probably were), there is no way of telling
this.
Review of literature after 1850
Locust and grasshopper outbreaks
Since the trials and tribulations of 1818-1821, the settlers in the
Red River valley of what is now Manitoba had no serious locust problem
for many years, although they had other troubles. The Canadian West had,
nevertheless, by no means seen the last of the Rocky Mountain locust and
other major grasshopper pests, and Seamans (1956) notes, with some
inaccuracy, most of the "locust" and "grasshopper" years from 1818 until
1951. The first signs of serious trouble ahead seem to have been in 1855,
when, as reported by Taylor (1859), severe outbreaks occurred in Oregon
and Washington, the "entire territories" being covered by grasshoppers.
There were also, according to Taylor (op. cit.), swarms in Minnesota that
year-although this has been denied by Whitman (in Packard 1877)-and
again in 1856 (Walsh 1866, quoting O. H. Kelley in Country Gentleman;
Scudder 1872; Riley 1875, 1877b; Packard 1877, 1878; Lugger 1898). In 1857,
the swarms became more numerous in various parts of the northwestern
United States, including Minnesota (references as aforementioned), and many
entered Manitoba. Riegert (1980) quotes earlier authors who described swarms
in the Pembina River district. There was not much serious crop loss as a result
of the visitations because the swarms arrived too late in the year (Scudder
1872, with reference to a letter from the Honourable Donald Gunn;
G. M. Dawson 1875b, cL Mitchener 1954b). Nevertheless, they deposited
vast numbers of eggs that gave rise to abundant progeny in the following
year, 1858 (Hind 1859:40,43; Gunn 1878). Hind (1859:44) gives a graphic
account of a devastating flight of Melanoplus spretus to the west of what
is now Souris, Man., on 2 July 1858. He also refers to other occurrences
of locusts in Saskatchewan, and records observations on phenology.
The seriousness of the locust plague of 1858 is stressed by many later
authors. For the following few years, however, locusts were not prevalent
until they appeared in Dakota territory in 1863 (Whitman, in Packard 1877)
and Minnesota (Lugger 1898). They reappeared in force in 1864 and 1865,
causing (according to some authors) widespread damage, particularly in the
former year. Morton (1938), following Hargrave (1871), notes that the 1864
swarms of grasshoppers had been preceded by "a severe drought, such as
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