Effect of Grazing by Cattle on the Abundance of Grasshoppers on Fescue Grassland

Abstract

Grasshoppers were collected annually from 1970 to 1976 in late August from experimental fields of fescue rangeland that had been grazed by cattle at four rates of intensity. Sixteen species of grasshoppers were found but only four species constituted 90% of the population. Chorthippus longicornis, Melanoplus sanguinipes, Aeropedellus clavatus, Neopodismopsis abdominalis, and M. bivittatus were more abundant on the lightly and moderately grazed fields, whereas M. dawsoni, M. gladstoni and M. infantalis were more abundant in the heavily and very heavily grazed fields. Camnula pellucida was randomly distributed among the four fields. Generally, more grasshoppers were collected from the heavily and very heavily grazed fields than from the lightly and moderately grazed fields.