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Humidity Reactions of Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) and Camnula pellucida (Scudd.) (Orthoptera: Acrididae): Reactions of Starved and of Moulting Grasshoppers1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2012

P. Wm. Riegert
P. Wm. Riegert
Affiliation:
Canada Department of Agriculture Research Laboratory, Saskatoon, Sask.
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Extract

Previous work (11) showed that two species of grasshoppers, Melanoplus bivittatus (Say) and Camnula pellucida (Scudd.), normally prefer a dry atmosphere. The present paper deals with the effects of starvation and of moulting on the humidity reactions of these species.

Materials and Methods

To test the effect of starvation on humidity reactions, adults of the two species from laboratory-reared cultures were used. Each adult was placed in a separate, cylindrical, plastic-screen cage, which mas eight inches long, two inches in diameter, and corked at both ends, The caged insects, without food or water, were placed for four or five days, or until death, in racks in a rearing room maintained at 30 ± 0.5°C. and 46 ± 1 per cent relative humidity. At intervals triplicated samples of ten adults, of one species and sex, were removed from the cages to test their reactions to alternative humidities of 0 and 90 per cent in an olfactometer (11).

Type
Articles
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 90 , Issue 11 , November 1958 , pp. 680 - 684
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 1958

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