{{short description|1875 infestation of Rocky Mountain locusts}} {{Use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}} [[File:Grangers vs Hoppers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|1875 cartoon by [[Henry Worrall (artist)|Henry Worrall]] showing Kansas farmers battling giant grasshoppers]] '''Albert's swarm''' was an immense concentration of the [[Rocky Mountain locust]] that [[Swarm behaviour|swarmed]] the [[Western United States]] in 1875. It was named after Albert Child, a [[physician]] interested in [[meteorology]], who calculated the size of the swarm to {{convert|198000|sqmi|km2}} by multiplying the swarm's estimated speed with the time it took for it to move through southern [[Nebraska]].<ref name=Wilcove>{{cite book |title=No Way Home: the Decline of the World's Great Animal Migrations |last=Wilcove |first=David Samuel |year=2008 |publisher=Island Press |isbn=978-1-55963-985-9 |page=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XNRaOCiAUFIC&pg=PT74}}</ref>
The 1875 swarm is referred to repeatedly in a western Missouri historical record that explains:<ref>{{cite book|title=The History of Henry and St. Clair Counties, Missouri |year=1883 |publisher=National Historical Company |location=St. Joseph, Missouri |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofhenryst00nati/page/254 254] |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofhenryst00nati}}</ref> <blockquote>It was the year 1875 that will long be remembered by the people of at least four states, as the grasshopper year. The scourge struck Western Missouri April, 1875, and commenced devastating some of the fairest portions of our noble commonwealth. They gave [[Henry_County,_Missouri|Henry [County]]] an earnest and overwhelming visitation, and demonstrated with an amazing rapidity that their appetite was voracious, and that everything green belonged to them for their sustenance.</blockquote>
One estimate numbers the locusts in the swarm at 3.5 trillion.<ref name=Lockwood>{{cite book|last=Lockwood |first=Jeffrey A. |title=Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier |year=2004 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York |isbn=0738208949 |page=21 |edition=1st}}</ref> Another estimate numbers the swarm at 12.5 trillion, which is the greatest concentration of animals ever speculatively guessed, according to Guinness World Records.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://animaldiversity.org/site/accounts/information/Melanoplus_spretus.html|title=Melanoplus spretus (Rocky Mountain Locust)|website=Animal Diversity Web|language=en|access-date=2017-10-05}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Locust Plague of 1874]]
==References== {{Reflist}}
[[Category:1875 natural disasters]] [[Category:Natural disasters in the United States]] [[Category:Natural disasters in Colorado]] [[Category:Natural disasters in Kansas]] [[Category:Natural disasters in Missouri]] [[Category:Natural disasters in Nebraska]] [[Category:Locust swarms]] [[Category:1875 natural disasters in the United States]]