UBC Botanical Garden Blog

Brent and I had a somewhat more leisurely day today as we travelled from Caldwell, Idaho to Elko, Nevada, a distance of about 400km (250 miles). We stopped a number of times and Brent made a few collections along the way, including a site along a stretch of highway that had quite a bit of litter. Still, there was beauty to be found. After arriving in Elko, we decided to scout tomorrow's destination, the nearby Ruby Mountains (the landscape photograph).

The biological highlight of the day, though, had to be the mass swarms of Anabrus simplex or Mormon cricket. I had only taken the road-view photograph of the insects to get an idea of the size of the bug, so it doesn't show the greater density of insects we later witnessed (about 10-15x as dense). In some areas, there were easily 20 individuals per square meter – the highway was stained red in places where the katydids had gathered and died en masse. It was quite unnerving to walk among them and have the grass audibly rustle as they half-hopped, half-skittered out of the way. The linked article discusses the swarming behaviour, though doesn't provide a reason behind its origin.