Content provided in partnership with

Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier

Natural History, July-August, 2004 by Laurence A. Marschall

Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier by Jeffrey A. Lockwood Basic Books, 2004; $25.00

Among the more than 30 million items in the National Collections of Insects and Mites of the Smithsonian Institution is a pair of nondescript specimens: two dark grasshoppers of the species Melanoplus spretus, commonly known as the Rocky Mountain locust. In the 1800s vast armies of these creatures rose up every few years, rolling across the Great Plains and leaving nothing but ruin in their wake. Their approach was heralded only by an eerie grayness. Then the horizon disappeared beneath an advancing cloud of blackness, while a deafening buzz swelled out of the gloom. Frontier farmers ran for cover, choking and flailing at the air. The locusts shredded fields of ripening wheat, stripped the wood from the handles of farm tools, ate the very clothes off of farmers who ventured outdoors to drive them away. There were reports of trains unable to move, because the rails were greased for miles by the bodies of crushed locusts.

Most Popular Articles in Reference: The importance of understanding organizational culture; Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students; What factors attract foreign direct investment?; Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...; How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques; More »

The devastation was biblical. A trained observer measured one swarm in Nebraska to be at least 110 miles wide. The swarm included an estimated 3.5 trillion insects. No wonder, then, that the homesteaders viewed the locusts as the wrath of an angry God.

More pragmatic souls devised ways to fight back, patenting devices like the King Suction-Machine, a horse-drawn contraption that vacuumed locusts into a chamber where they were hurled to their deaths against a wire screen and blown into bags for disposal But nothing proved effective. It is no exaggeration to say that locusts were a critical factor in limiting growth on the American frontier, as well as in allocating public resources--as important to consider as climate, railways, and the struggle with Native Americans.

Yet the two insects in the Smithsonian collection are notable for another reason: they were the last living specimens of the Rocky Mountain locust. Because major infestations were sporadic and unpredictable, no one in the 1890s had noticed that the locust populations were in decline. Norman Criddle, a Canadian naturalist who collected the two museum specimens in 1902, had no way of knowing that the little dark grasshoppers would never be seen again. Yet, as if the prayers of the pious had been answered, the Rocky Mountain locust disappeared from the face of the Earth.

To the admittedly small company of grasshopper lovers (doubtless more numerous now, however, than in the 1800s), the disappearance of the Rocky Mountain locust remained one of the great biological puzzles of all time. Had some inadvertent environmental insult made it impossible for the locusts to survive? Had the settlers' infernal contraptions and pesticides accomplished their intended task after all? Had the locusts transformed (as some insects have been known to do) into an alternate form--a different-looking, more benign grasshopper?

The mystery was finally solved by Jeffrey A. Lockwood, an entomologist at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, who, after considerable searching, found frozen remains of locust swarms in remote glaciers in the Rockies. With modern techniques, Lockwood and his collaborators could rule out many of the old theories. Finally, over the decade of the 1990s, a satisfying picture of the fate of the insect emerged. Lockwood deserves credit, not only for his scientific acumen but for being a first-rate writer of natural history, and I will not spoil a great story by giving away his best lines. Suffice it to say that he has brought the Rocky Mountain locust to life, thankfully only on the pages of this lucid and eminently entertaining book.

LAURENCE A. MARSCHALL, author of The Supernova Story, is the W.K.T. Sahm professor of physics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, and director of Project CLEA, which produces widely used simulation software for education in astronomy.

Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier

Natural History, July-August, 2004 by Laurence A. Marschall

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Autos

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference