HYBRIDIZATION STUDIES IN THE MIGRATORY GRASSHOPPER MELANOPLUS-SANGUINIPES (F) (ACRIDIDAE)

Three subspecies of the migratory grasshopper Melanoplus sanguinipes (F.) are recognized by Gurney and Brooks (1959) who, on the basis of morphology and presence of intergrades in collections, do not consider the taxa sufficiently different to warrant according them species status. Present experiments show that members of distant populations, when crossed, readily produce viable and fertile hybrids of both sexes. It is, however, premature to claim that the groups are conspecific without confirmatory information on, for instance, genetic distances and mating discrimination indices. Nonetheless, it is hypothesized that these parameters are expected to have low values given the hybridization results.