Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American FrontierThroughout the nineteenth century, swarms of locusts regularly swept across the continent, turning noon into dusk, demolishing farm communities, and bringing trains to a halt as the crushed bodies of insects greased the rails. In 1876, the U.S. Congress declared the locust "the single greatest impediment to the settlement of the country." From the Dakotas to Texas, from California to Iowa, the swarms pushed thousands of settlers to the brink of starvation, prompting the federal government to enlist some of the greatest scientific minds of the day and thereby jumpstarting the fledgling science of entomology. Over the next few decades, the Rocky Mountain locust suddenly -- and mysteriously -- vanished. A century later, Jeffrey Lockwood set out to discover why. Unconvinced by the reigning theories, he searched for new evidence in musty books, crumbling maps, and crevassed glaciers, eventually piecing together the elusive answer: A group of early settlers unwittingly destroyed the locust's sanctuaries just as the insect was experiencing a natural population crash. Drawing on historical accounts and modern science, Locust brings to life the cultural, economic, and political forces at work in America in the late-nineteenth century, even as it solves one of the greatest ecological mysteries of our time. |
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... University of Wyoming. He is the author of Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving and has written numerous articles for magazines such as Orion, Wild Earth, and American Entomologist. He lives in Laramie, Wyoming ...
... University of Wyoming. He is the author of Grasshopper Dreaming: Reflections on Killing and Loving and has written numerous articles for magazines such as Orion, Wild Earth, and American Entomologist. He lives in Laramie, Wyoming ...
Page xiii
... University of Wyoming who lent their energy and expertise to the making of this book. Scott Schell, Spencer Schell, and Doug Smith provided valuable research on a spectacular range of historical, political, and biological matters ...
... University of Wyoming who lent their energy and expertise to the making of this book. Scott Schell, Spencer Schell, and Doug Smith provided valuable research on a spectacular range of historical, political, and biological matters ...
Page xiv
... University shared his unique ideas concerning the relationship between the Rocky Mountain locust and the Eskimo curlew. Ian McRae (University of Minnesota) and John Luhman (Minnesota Department of Agriculture) aided my efforts to ...
... University shared his unique ideas concerning the relationship between the Rocky Mountain locust and the Eskimo curlew. Ian McRae (University of Minnesota) and John Luhman (Minnesota Department of Agriculture) aided my efforts to ...
Page xxi
... worked as my research associate for the last three years. Before coming to the University of Wyoming, he had operated his own logging company, worked highway construction, and fought forest fires. Only a few xxi INTRODUCTION.
... worked as my research associate for the last three years. Before coming to the University of Wyoming, he had operated his own logging company, worked highway construction, and fought forest fires. Only a few xxi INTRODUCTION.
Page 59
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Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that ... Jeffrey A. Lockwood No preview available - 2005 |
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