Hunting Hoppers
- 1 July 1988
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in American Antiquity
- Vol. 53 (3) , 593-604
- https://doi.org/10.2307/281220
Abstract
Lakeside Cave deposits spanning the last 5,000 years contain evidence of grasshopper (Melanoplus sanguinipes) use. Abundant ethnographic/ethnohistoric data suggest the widespread use of hoppers and other insects. Procurement strategies may be unique to the Great Salt Lake area. During the summer, salted and sun-dried hoppers are washed up on beaches and form windrows up to .2 m× 1.5 m× 15 km Hoppers produce over 3,010 kcal/ kg, and return rates average 272,649 kcal/hour. Digestible proportions have not been determined, but even at a return rate well below the experimental value, optimality models suggest hopper collection should be favored over all other collected resources.Keywords
This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit:
- Pestiferous Ironclads: The Grasshopper Problem in Pioneer UtahUtah Historical Quarterly, 1978
- Coloradia Pandora Blake, a Moth of Which the Caterpillar is Used as Food by Mono Lake IndiansAnnals of the Entomological Society of America, 1921