Alejandro, I highly recommend that you get a copy of Jeffrey Lockwood's book, "Locust: The devastating rise and mysterious disappearance of the insect that shaped the American frontier", published in 2004 by Basic Books, NY http://www.amazon.com/Locust-Devastating-Mysterious-Disappearance-American/dp/0465041671/ref=pd_luc_sim_02_02_t_lh?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It is a fascinating story of the Rocky Mountain locusts that emerged from the West to devastate early settler communities, and then disappear, and is based on an extensive review of both the scientific and popular literature. I had heard of these locusts, but was still astonished at the first-hand accounts in this book - with the swarms eating not only all the crops but even the clothes off the clotheslines, and often forcing families to abandon their farms. Without this historical perspective, we would have no idea of their impact, as they have not returned for a century or more and are believed by many to be extinct.
Jeffrey Lockwood is at the University of Wyoming. This is not his only book on grasshoppers, but seems the most relevant to your work. Let me know if I can be of help. Best wishes, David Tonkyn Clemson University On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 3:36 PM, Alejandro Camargo < [email protected]> wrote: > Dear Ecolog-L members: > > I am a human geographer interested in the relationships between > environmental disasters and agrarian political economy. Parallel to my > dissertation project -which explores the articulation of flood-induced > disasters and agrarian development in Northern Colombia- I am starting a > research project about locust outbreaks and rural transformations in > Colombia 1880-1920. Between 1880 and 1920 (especially during dry times), > locust invasions became an alarming catastrophe throughout Colombia. This > catastrophe severely affected rural inhabitants, who repeatedly lost their > crops and, as a consequence, were experiencing a critical situation of > hungry and impoverishment. I've been collecting different types of sources > in local and national archives in Colombia such as newspapers, policy > reports, and scientific articles. I order to contextualize this > information, I've also been collecting papers published during that period > in Latin American and North American journals, since locust invasions were > taking place throughout the whole continent as well. Surprisingly, the > locust question disappeared after 1920 from Colombian newspapers and other > sources that previously devoted many pages to this catastrophe. The sources > I've read contain lots of interesting information that lays bare not only > the catastrophic situation that peasants were facing, but it also shows all > sorts of political and scientific discussions among government officials, > scientists, and other persons regarding the origins of locust invasions and > the potential methods to counteract them. > > As I'm trained in social sciences, it has been difficult to know how > accurate these discussions were. I have the feeling that there was a lot of > speculation about the ecological and biogeographical dynamics of locust > invasions. So I would like to know if people of this list may suggest key > readings on the ecology and biogeography of locusts and grasshoppers. As I > have already some data regarding dates and places where locusts were > destroying crops, I would also like to make some maps, but I first need to > understand why, and how these catastrophic invasions took place from an > ecological perspective. I would also appreciate any suggestion and > information regarding researchers I could get in contact with. > > Thanks so much for your attention. > > Alejandro Camargo > Ph.D. Candidate > Department of Geography > Syracuse University > Syracuse, NY, USA >
