Taxonomic and Bionomic Notes on the Grasshopper Melanoplus impudicus Scudder (Orthoptera: Acrididae)

Abstract

During 1940 Melanoplus impudicus Scudd. was discovered to be well established on shale barrens on the western slope of the Massanutten Mountains a few miles from Woodstock, Va. These mountains rise from the floor of the Shenandoah Valley, between the Blue Ridge to the east and the Alleghenies and other mountains of the Appalachian system to the west. On the slopes of the Massanutten Range are many areas of very fine talus, resulting from the weathering, on the steep hillside, of protruding layers of shale. These areas, very small to many acres in extent, are called shale barrens and support a distinctive flora and, at least in part, a distinctive fauna. There are no published Virginia records of M. impudicus, though it was first taken in the State by Morgan Hebard at Hot Springs in 1916. Comparatively little has been published concerning the species, and since it is such a characteristic member of the insect fauna of the shale barrens all available information on