Differential grasshopper | |
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Differential grasshoppers copulating | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Orthoptera |
Suborder: | Caelifera |
Family: | Acrididae |
Genus: | Melanoplus |
Species: | M. differentialis |
Binomial name | |
Melanoplus differentialis (Thomas, 1865) [1] | |
Subspecies | |
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The differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis) is a species of grasshopper belonging to the genus Melanoplus . It is found throughout northern Mexico, the central United States [2] and southern Ontario, Canada. [3] It is considered a pest over most of its range. [2]
Adult males grow to 28–37 mm, and females grow to 34–50 mm. They are brownish or greenish, and as they age the color will darken. Some nymphs can be bright yellow. There are black grooves on the pronotum. The male has bootlike appendages at the end of its abdominal tip. [4] There are inverted chevrons along the hind femur, and the hind part of the tibia is yellowish with black spikes. All adults have yellow tarsi and antennae, or in some cases reddish-yellow antennae. [5]
The differential grasshopper is found throughout most of the United States, except for the northwest. [6] Within its range, it is most often found in heavily weeded areas and grasslands, and even in vacant lots and other urban areas. [7] This species is not migratory, but can travel a few miles to search for food. In the northern part of its range, M. differentialis is about as numerous as the two-striped grasshopper ( Melanoplus bivittatus ), but in the southern part of its range greatly outnumbers it. [8]
There is one generation per year. An adult female lays up to six egg masses in soft soil, each of which can contain 40–200 eggs. The eggs begin embryonic development the summer they are laid, then enter diapause for the winter, to hatch over a period of about two weeks in early summer of the next year. After hatching, nymphs take about 32 days to reach adulthood. Their development is well synchronized, and most nymphs transform to winged adults during a period of just a few days. [9] Differential grasshoppers are polyphagous, eating both grasses and forbs, but experiments have shown that they grow faster if fed forbs. The most favored food plants tend to be giant ragweed ( Ambrosia trifida ), common sunflower ( Helianthus annuus ), and prickly lettuce ( Lactuca serriola ). Adults can detect a chemical change in wilted lettuce and sunflowers, and will tend to avoid such plants.
The young grasshoppers feed on various grains, alfalfa and hay crops, while adults attack corn, cotton and deciduous fruit crops. A single swarm can destroy a crop in a few days. Because this species tends to feed in large swarms, it can be a serious threat to farming over most of its range.
In smaller numbers, or in urban regions, differential grasshoppers frequently feed on garden vegetables, such as tomatoes, peas, Cannabis, various kinds of squash, and the leaves of those plants.
Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, the Tettigoniidae are the only extant (living) family in the superfamily Tettigonioidea.
Orthoptera is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grasshoppers, locusts, and close relatives; and Ensifera – crickets and close relatives.
The Rocky Mountain locust is an extinct species of grasshopper that ranged through the western half of the United States and some western portions of Canada with large numbers seen until the end of the 19th century. Sightings often placed their swarms in numbers far larger than any other locust species, with one famous sighting in 1875 estimated at 198,000 square miles (510,000 km2) in size, weighing 27.5 million tons and consisting of some 12.5 trillion insects, the greatest concentration of animals ever speculatively guessed, according to Guinness World Records.
Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago.
The Mormon cricket is a large insect native to western North America in rangelands dominated by sagebrush and forbs. Anabrus is a genus in the shield-backed katydid subfamily in the Tettigoniidae family, commonly called katydids, bush crickets, and previously "long-horned grasshoppers." Its common name, "Mormon cricket," is a misnomer: true crickets are of the family Gryllidae.
Roesel's bush-cricket, Roeseliana roeselii is a European bush-cricket, named after August Johann Rösel von Rosenhof, a German entomologist.
Melanoplus is a large genus of grasshoppers. They are the typical large grasshoppers in North America. A common name is spur-throat grasshoppers, but this more typically refers to members of the related subfamily Catantopinae.
Saga pedo is a species of wingless bush cricket from the southern half of Europe and western and central Asia. This brown or green bush cricket typically has a total length, from the head to the tip of the ovipositor, of up to 10.5 cm (4.1 in), but exceptionally it may reach 12 cm (4.7 in), which makes it one of the largest European insects and one of the world's largest Orthoptera. The head-and-body alone typically is 5–7 cm (2.0–2.8 in) long in adults, but may reach up to 7.8 cm (3.1 in).
Gryllus pennsylvanicus is known as the fall field cricket. G. pennsylvanicus is common in southern Ontario, is widespread across much of North America and can be found even into parts of northern Mexico. It tends to be absent in most of the southwestern United States including southern California. Within its geographic range this field cricket will burrow into soil in fields and forest edges. Individuals inhabit grassy disturbed areas and are often found around areas of human habitation.
Schizodactylus monstrosus or the maize cricket, is a species of large, robust cricket found in Asia, belonging to the family Schizodactylidae. It is found mainly in sandy habitats along rivers, and has large flattened tarsal extensions and wings that are curled at the tip, right above the cerci. They are nocturnal and show a high degree of variation in activity during the day and night. They hide in burrows that they dig on their own during the day.
Melanoplus bivittatus, the two-striped grasshopper, is a poikilothermic species of grasshopper belonging to the genus Melanoplus. It is commonly found in North America, with high quantities inhabiting Canadian prairies and farmland.
Melanoplus femurrubrum, the red-legged grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper belonging to the genus Melanoplus. It is one of the most common grasshoppers found in Mexico, the United States, and Canada. This grasshopper is frequently used as a model organism in scientific studies, due to their abundance throughout North America and behavioral response to changes in climate.
Taeniopoda eques, the western horse lubber grasshopper, is a relatively large grasshopper species of the family Romaleidae found in arid and semi-arid parts of southwestern United States to central and southwestern Mexico. Most populations are identifiable by their shiny black bodies with contrasting yellow markings, but some adults are mostly yellowish, orangish or greenish. The species is unique in using its black coloration to thermoregulate and in being chemically defended. The aposematic coloration warns vertebrate predators of its unpalatability and allows the grasshopper to roost conspicuously upon shrubs.
Schistocerca americana is a species of grasshopper in the family Acrididae known commonly as the American grasshopper and American bird grasshopper. It is native to North America, where it occurs in the eastern United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas. Occasional, localized outbreaks of this grasshopper occur, and it is often referred to as a locust, though it lacks the true swarming form of its congener, the desert locust.
Epicauta vittata is a species of beetle in the family Meloidae, the blister beetles. It is native to eastern North America, including eastern Canada and the eastern United States. It is known commonly as the striped blister beetle and the old-fashioned potato beetle. It is known as an agricultural pest.
Valanga nigricornis, the Javanese grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper in the subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae of the family Acrididae. It is found in southeastern Asia, the type location being Singapore. It was first described by the German zoologist Hermann Burmeister in 1838. There are more than twenty subspecies, most of which are endemic to different island groups; the subspecies V. nigricornis nigricornis is the type for the genus Valanga.
Plagiotriptus pinivorus, the African pine-feeding grasshopper, is a species of thericleid orthopteran. It is native to eastern Africa where it is usually found in areas with moderate or heavy rainfall, mostly in the range 1,525 to 2,135 m, but sometimes at lower elevations down to about 500 m (1,640 ft).
Melanoplus bispinosus, the two-spined spurthroated grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper belonging to the genus Melanoplus. This grasshopper is native to the United States.
Caedicia simplex is a species of bush cricket or katydid, native to New Zealand and Australia. A common name is the "common garden katydid".
Siliquofera is a genus of bush cricket in the subfamily Phyllophorinae that includes only one species, Siliquofera grandis, which is fairly common and widespread in rainforest canopies of New Guinea and nearby smaller islands, and seemingly rare in Australia where only found in the remote Iron Range region. This very well-camouflaged, green and leaf-like bush cricket is one of the world's largest Orthoptera, with adults typically having a length of 10.7–13 cm (4.2–5.1 in) and a wingspan of 25–27 cm (9.8–10.6 in); it can weigh more than 30 g (1.1 oz).