Rocky Mountain Locust: Agricultural Elimination
These insects once formed swarms so vast they darkened skies for days. Settlers described clouds of locusts stretching 1,800 miles long. As farmers plowed the Great Plains, they unknowingly destroyed underground egg-laying sites. The last collection occurred in 1902 in southern Canada. Their disappearance represents one of few insect extinctions we’ve documented—likely because most insect losses go unnoticed and unrecorded.