Survival of Unfed First-Instar Grasshoppers

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Abstract
During some investigations on grasshoppers it became necessary to know how long they would survive without food or water after hatching. The literature contains only scanty observations. Washburn (1911) reported that grasshoppers “freshly hatched, can live from four to five days without food”. Langford (1930) showed that 30 per cent of Melanoplus femur-rubrum (DeG.) and M. differenrialis (Thos.) (adults?) survived for two days at 95° F. without food and 100 per cent survived for two days at 69° F. At 38° F. 40 per cent survived for 13 days. Telenga (1930) kept first-instar Schistocerca gregaria Forsk. in outdoor cages without food and water where they survived only two days. Bodenheimer (1929) found that the average life of newly hatched S. gregaria in outdoor cages without food at ± 15° C. was 3.6 days, with a maximum of nine days, and that later instars that were starved lived longer at higher humidities. Ludwig (1937) testing the effect of different relative humidities on survival showed that third-, fourth-, and fifth-instar Chortophaga viridifasciata (DeG.) survived starvation for 5.2 to 6.6 days at 25° C, at all re1ative humidities from 5 to 96 per cent.