Influence of Plant Frequency and Certain Morphological Variations on Diets of Rangeland Grasshoppers

Abstract

The frequency of plant species in the diets of 14 grasshopper species, collected on rangeland lightly grazed by cattle at the Eastern Colorado Range Station, was determined by microscopic examination of crop contents. Significant correlations were found between frequency of plant species in the habitat and the frequency of plant species in the diets of all grashopper species except Melanoplus confusus. No correlation was found between the body weight or potential mobility of grasshopper species and the degree to which plant frequency influences their diets. As the number of plant species eaten increased, the influence of the relative availability of plant species on the diets decreased. There was no correlation between either body weight or potential mobility and the number of plant species eaten or the number of plant species/crop.