Rearing Grasshoppers and Locusts: Review, Rationale and Update

Grasshoppers and locusts are widely studied mainly because of their economic importance in many parts of the world. The species most commonly reared in the laboratory are: the lesser migratory grasshopper, Melanoplus sanguinipes (F.)*, the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskal) and the African migratory locust, Locusta migratoria migratorioides (L.). Apart from adjusting population density or cage dimensions in scale with the size of the adults of each species, the procedures described below, with dietary adjustments as necessary, would be applicable to many other acridids. Henry (1985) successfully reared 16 species from 8 genera of grasshoppers using similar diets and procedures. M. sanguinipes has been subject to numerous studies and has provided a convenient classroom insect (Pfadt et al. 1979). As far as we are aware, the many extant non-diapausing colonies of this species all were derived from the Saskatoon Research