OrThoptera Thursday: Eastern Ant Cricket

Between allergies to grass pollen, windy and/or stormy weather, and periodic depression, I have not been getting out in the field very often lately. Consequently, I was delighted when an unusual insect came to me. Leaving our bathroom for our bedroom the other night, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. A small insect was running along the edge of the bathtub. My initial thought was "oh, shoot, a cockroach nymph." Closer examination revealed it to be something much more exciting and not at all a pest.

It was an adult male Eastern Ant Cricket, Myrmecophilus pergandei. How it came to be in our bathroom I have no idea. This species, like others in its genus, is supposed to be found almost exclusively in association with ants. Ironically, ants may consider these diminutive crickets to be pests inside their colonies.

Myrmecophilus have been observed actively "licking" ants, and the walls of underground ant nests, presumably feeding on oily secretions from their hosts' exoskeletons. The ants barely tolerate this unwanted attention, and may attack or even kill and eat the crickets. Still, the cricketes are remarkably agile, able to run away quickly from danger. I was surprised that I managed to successfully usher this one into a vial so I could take better images in the casserole dish that is our "studio" for insect and spider subjects.

Carpenter ant, a potential host species for our ant cricket

Ant crickets vary in size, usually in accordance with the host ant species, but none exceed 4.7 millimeters. The smallest adult specimens recorded measured less than 1.5 millimeters.The one imaged here is a relative giant. I suspect it may have come from a nest of carpenter ants, of which we have several around our home, one satellite nest in the frame of our back door, not terribly far from the exterior wall of the bathroom.

Among their adaptations to life in subterranean ant colonies, ant crickets have no ocelli (simple eyes), and their compound eyes are reduced to a small collection of facets. What they lack in vision they make up for with long, sensitive antennae. They also have oversized cerci, the pair of flared, tail-like appendages at the rear of the abdomen. The cerci are covered in sensory hairs that, as in roaches, other crickets, and related orthopterans, detect otherwise imperceptible air currents generated by approaching predators.

Eastern Ant Cricket is found from Maryland south to Florida, and west to southern Iowa, eastern Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, but there are recent records from New York and New England. There may be other species where you live. Oregon Ant Cricket, Myrmecophilus oregonensis, ranges west of the Cascade Mountains from southern British Columbia through Oregon and Washington, and most of California. Mann's Ant Cricket, M. manni, has a similar range, but from southern Washington state through Oregon, California, most of Nevada, and Arizona. Nebraska Ant Cricket, M. nebrascensis, occurs from southern California to Texas, and north through eastern Colorado, and most of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

Sources: Capinera, John L., Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. 249 pp.
Bugguide

The Great Grasshopper Hunt II

I am terribly behind in chronicling field experiences I have participated in this summer, including the second annual(?) "grasshopper hunt" co-sponsored by Mile High Bug Club and the Aiken Audubon Society. Our first one was held last year at Homestead Ranch Regional Park near Peyton, Colorado. This time we opted to head farther south and a little farther east to Chico Basin Ranch; and we were led by grasshopper expert Bill Maynard.

Our intrepid participants © Bell Mead

The ranch is a sprawling 87,000 acres that straddles the El Paso and Pueblo County line. Its wide array of habitats, from sandhills to artificial wetlands, makes for high biodiversity, especially among insects and grasshoppers in particular. In only a few hours our party of roughly ten people observed forty (40) species of grasshoppers, plus many other insects and arachnids.

Pink form of the Broad-banded Grasshopper, Trimerotropis latifasciata

Bill is rather new to the study of grasshoppers, but he quickly masters many aspects of natural history. He is already recognized as a leading authority on birds and dragonflies, with many state and county records to his credit. It is only a matter of time before the same can be said of his expertise in the order Orthoptera to which grasshoppers belong.

Rather than overwhelming you with images here, I will direct you to the Mile High Bug Club Flickr Group where you can peruse the image collection at your leisure.

Snakeweed Grasshopper, Hesperotettix viridis

We would be remiss if we did not also acknowledge the hospitality of the Chico Basin Ranch staff, especially Tess Leach and her family. Her two children were especially curious, and remarkably patient and gentle in their approach to the many grasshoppers we saw.

Three-banded Grasshopper, Hadrotettix triafasciatus (foreground), signaling to a Broad-banded Grasshopper (background) to get out of its territory

The intense heat of that August 6 day sent some members of our party packing by about noon, but who could blame them? The Plains Harvestfly, a type of cicada, made it seem hotter still with its loud, oppressive buzz. All in all, the "expedition" was a resounding success, and no vehicles or people were injured during the odyssey.

Plains Harvestfly, Neotibicen dealbatus

While plains and deserts are prime habitats for grasshoppers, you can find them nearly everywhere. You will be surprised by the number of species you can discover in your own backyard, neighborhood park, vacant lot, or any other patch of wildness. Even now, with the first frosts approaching, grasshoppers are among the few insects left in any abundance. Go take a look for them.

Tree Cricket Courtship

Tree crickets, genus Oecanthus, are having quite the year here along the Colorado Front Range. Last month I went to Garden of the Gods park in Colorado Springs and could hardly go twenty feet without hearing a male tree cricket singing in the tall weeds or from a yucca blade. I even managed to capture videos of their singing and courtship.

Male tree cricket singing

There are five species of tree crickets in Colorado: the Prairie Tree Cricket, Oecanthus argentinus, Western Tree Cricket, O. californicus, Snowy Tree Cricket, O. fultoni, Black-horned Tree Cricket, O. nigricornis, and the Four-spotted Tree Cricket, O. quadripunctatus. Determining the species of a given individual is difficult to say the least because identification frequently hinges on the markings present (or absent) on the first two segments at the base of the antenna. I know! The whole insect is only about twenty millimeters maximum.

It is much easier to tell which gender is which. Females are very slender, with the front pair of wings hugging the body tightly. The short, stout ovipositor, used to insert eggs into berry canes and other plant stems, is easily visible.

Female tree cricket

Males on the other hand have the front wings greatly expanded into paddle-shaped musical instruments that make them look more like green lacewings than crickets. The intricate pattern of veins is all about lending support to the membrane that generates, amplifies, and projects the male's song. He lifts his wings into a heart shape at a 90-degree angle to his body in order to sing.

Tree cricket singing

The song is produced when a "scraper" on one wing is drawn across a "file" on the other wing, near where the wings join the thorax. The rapidity with which this happens cannot be captured by ordinary video cameras. Some male tree crickets align their wings with gaps in foliage, or even chew holes in leaves, to reduce acoustic interference and further intensify their call.

Singing male tree cricket with exposed metanotal gland in center of thorax

Like most crickets and other members of the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids, crickets), males have more than one kind of song. Once a male successfully lures a female, he switches to a softer song to help her orient to him. His raised front wings also expose a metanotal gland in the center of his thorax, which secretes a substance that the female feeds on. This is something of a distraction so that he can transfer a spermatophore, or "sperm packet" to her genital opening. The packet appears as a small, pearly blob near the tip of her abdomen in the video and images below.

Female tree cricket feeding from male's metanotal gland

The spermatophore takes time to drain sperm into her oviduct, and the female would undoubtedly eat it if she did not have the more attractive metanotal secretion to lick instead. She is sufficiently addicted that she feeds for several minutes after mating.

Tree crickets are omnivores, feeding on plants and small insects like aphids. Some species are truly arboreal, living in shrubs or high in trees, but a surprising diversity can be found in grassy fields, meadows, and similar habitats.

Male tree cricket at rest

There are many wonderful online resources to help you appreciate and identify tree crickets. One of the best is Singing Insects of North America, which covers grasshoppers, katydids, and cicadas along with crickets. Oecanthinae.com was created by Nancy Collins, a citizen scientist who has become a leading authority on tree crickets, even discovering a species new to science. Lisa Rainsong writes and illustrates the blog "Listening in Nature," which covers all kinds of acoustic phenomenon in the outdoors.

Male Prairie(?) Tree Cricket singing

Enjoy listening to, and looking for, tree crickets in your own neighborhood. Finding them is a challenge, but your patience will be rewarded. Above all, have fun.

Sources: Collins, Nancy. 2014. All About Tree Crickets. Parker, Colorado: Outskirts Press. 48 pp.
Dethier, Vincent G. 1992. Crickets and Katydids, Concerts and Solos. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 140 pp.
Elliott, Lang and Wil Hershberger. 2007. The Songs of Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. 228 pp.

The Grasshopper Hunt

The Aiken Audubon Society here in Colorado Springs asked me to speak at their September monthly meeting, and to lead a field trip beforehand. I chose the topic of grasshoppers since there is so much diversity here. The field trip was to Homestead Ranch Regional Park near Peyton, Colorado (El Paso County). I was surprised and delighted by the turnout, and the interesting animals we encountered.

Carolina Grasshopper basking

We were fortunate to have two young men, Seth and Zach Vogel, and their father, Tim, along for the trip. The boys helped find many more animals than we would have were we left to my own devices. They have a keen eye, endless stamina, and great enthusiasm. Tim employed a GoPro® camera to record parts of the expedition in this video.

© Tim Vogel

The Mile High Bug Club was represented by Bell Mead and myself; and Aiken Audubon by Jeannie Mitchell, Leslie Holzmann, and Bill Maynard. Alison Kondler even came down from the Denver area. Thankfully, the weather was sunny, but not too hot.

Plains Lubber grasshopper

We had not even made it beyond the playground and picnic shelter before we saw Carolina Grasshoppers basking on the pavement, and the boys had found an enormous Plains Lubber Grasshopper, Brachystola magna. The latter brought out the "'hopper-razzi," cameras clicking away.

Plains Lubber grasshopper draws a crowd

Further along the trail through grassy habitat on a gentle slope, we encountered several species of spur-throated grasshoppers in the genus Melanoplus, plus Pallid-winged Grasshoppers (Trimerotropis pallidipennis), and the Northwestern Red-winged Grasshopper, Arphia pseudonietana.

While I was explaining how to identify a particular species, the boys brought over a really nice find: a male Mormon "Cricket." The Mormon Cricket, Anabrus simplex, is not a true cricket, nor a grasshopper, but a kind of shield-backed katydid.

Mormon "Cricket" male

Seth and Zach located these large insects by homing in on their "song," a kind of buzzing sound produced by the males rapidly rubbing their short wings together.

We entered a narrow zone of pine trees near the summit of the slope we were traversing, and that brought us another species of grasshopper, apparently confined to that wooded habitat. The Kiowa Grasshopper, Trachyrhachys kiowa, is another of the "band-winged grasshoppers" named for the dark band on the colored hind wing. The hind wings are only visible when the insect flies, and most grasshoppers fly only short distances before landing and once again becoming nearly invisible owing to their superb camouflage.

Kiowa Grasshopper with hind wing spread

Band-winged grasshoppers can make noise in flight. This is called "crepitation," and is a rattling or crackling sound, presumably as front and hind wing rub together....but the sound can be produced at will, so it is something of a mystery how it is produced.

The hill terminates in a rolling plateau, and the grassland changes a bit in composition. Here we heard slant-faced grasshoppers, hidden from view. Slant-faced grasshoppers cling to vegetation in the vertical plane rather than crawling on the ground like band-winged grasshoppers usually do. They produce sound not by crepitation but by "stridulation." The male grasshopper rubs the inside surface of his hind femur ("thigh") against veins of the folded front wing. The result is a "zip-zip-zip" kind of song.

We ended our hike at a circular water trough for horses and cattle, fed by a well with a windmill pump. The water looked awful, but was full of life. It took no time at all for Zach to spy a Barred Tiger Salamander (Ambystoma mavortium), one of at least two inhabiting the pool.

Barred Tiger Salamander

There were also water striders (insect family Gerridae), backswimmers (Notonectidae), diving beetles (Dytiscidae), and a Giant Water Scavenger Beetle, Hydrophilus triangularis (family Hydrophilidae). Various dragonflies circled as well.

Giant Water Scavenger Beetle

Everyone appeared delighted by the whole adventure, and I am very happy to see what is apparently a growing demand for field outings geared to organisms other than birds, or at least in addition to birds. I would very much like to do more of this kind of thing, all over the U.S., so keep those invitations coming!

Lakin Grasshopper

Grasshopper species diversity in the southwest U.S. presents enough of a challenge for the amateur naturalist, but then you have the Lakin Grasshopper, Melanoplus lakinus, that can apparently pass for several hundred species all by itself. That's an exaggeration, of course, but there is such great variability in the color, pattern, and wing length of this species that it is mind-boggling.

Lakin Grasshopper male

Lakin Grasshopper is often overwhelmingly abundant in disturbed habitats such as vacant lots and weedy fields and rangeland filled with its favorite host plants, members of the goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae. This includes Russianthistle ("tumbleweed"), kochia, and native saltbush (Atriplex spp.). It will also feed on various forbs and grasses such as lambsquarters, western wheatgrass, and downy brome. Despite high population densities in some years, it is seldom a crop pest.

Lakin Grasshopper female

This is a grasshopper of the Rockies and Great Plains, ranging from South Dakota and southern Minnesota south through western Iowa, most of Kansas, western Oklahoma, the west half of Texas, plus Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, and the eastern two-thirds of Wyoming, Utah, and Arizona. It also occurs deep into central Mexico.

Red form female from New Mexico

Melanoplus lakinus is a pretty "average" grasshopper. Adult males measure about 22 millimeters in body length, females 30 millimeters. Most specimens are short-winged as adults, but some are fully-winged. The overall color varies greatly from brownish or gray to green or even red. The tibia ("shin") segment of the hind leg is usually blue, armed with spines that are black or at least black-tipped. The inner surface of the hind femur ("thigh") is often reddish in part, especially along the bottom edge where the tibia folds into it. The top surface of the femur is most often marked with pronounced dark bands.

Green form female from Colorado

Dark bands on the abdomen, especially near the base, are helpful in recognizing the species in the field, but ultimately one has to examine the external genitalia of the male to confirm identification.

Ok, so how do you even tell apart the different genders? Below is an image that shows the male and female side-by-side, from the rear. The male is on the right. The female is on the left, but her abdomen is twisted to repel his advances, or accept his overtures, I'm honestly not sure which because I did not stick around long enough to see the outcome.

Male on right, female on left, rear view

The male's parts are pretty complicated, but you want to look at the shape of each "cercus," paired tail-like appendages. In the example below, we see that the cercus of M. lakinus is shaped something like a Hershey's candy kiss: broad at the base and tapered toward the tip. Next, take a look at the shape of the subgenital plate. It is best to view it directly from the rear, like in the image above. We can see it has a low, blunt tooth right in the middle. The supra-anal plate also offers species-specific details, but they are more difficult to discern, especially in images.

Anatomy of male M. lakinus

When two grasshoppers do get together, it looks like this:

Mating pair, male on top

Pretty kinky, almost literally! Mated females deposit clusters of eggs ("pods") in the soil by telescoping their abdomen as deep as it can reach. The eggs are held together by a kind of foamy secretion that hardens to protect the mass from environmental extremes. The eggs hatch in late May or early June, on average, the following year. In Arizona, where summer monsoons trigger hatching, emergence is usually in early July. The nymphs pass through five instars (an instar is the interval between molts), reaching adulthood in about a month.

Long-winged female from New Mexico

This year was a good one for the Lakin Grasshopper here in Colorado, and also in New Mexico, as heavy spring rains provided the nymphs with plenty of food after years of draught. The adults have hung around a long time, too. Just yesterday I spotted one basking on the sunny side of a building in our townhouse complex.

Sources: Capinera, John L. , Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates (Cornell University Press). 249 pp.
Branson, David H. and Bethany Redlin (eds.). 2004. Grasshoppers: Their Biology, Identification and Management. 2nd Edition. US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.
Grasshoppers of Colorado

Large-headed Grasshopper

I am fortunate to be surrounded by a community of entomologists with a collectively vast knowledge of insects and arachnids, and I meet more of these scholars seemingly every week, at least in the digital world of listservs and social media. I owe it to one such expert, Dr. Charles Bomar, for the identification of the fortieth (40th) species of grasshopper that I have now seen in Colorado Springs alone: the Large-headed Grasshopper, Phoetaliotes nebrascensis.

I encountered the critter on the Rock Island Trail, a concrete bike path through residential and commercial areas in eastern Colorado Springs, on October 26 as my wife and I were walking our dog. I snapped only two images, figuring this was something already familiar, in the genus Melanoplus.

Consulting book and online resources at home I was surprised I couldn't find an immediate match. So, I posted the image shown above to the Orthopterist's Society group page on Facebook. Almost immediately I received an answer from Dr. Bomar. He went on to suggest even more important references that I should have, including a link to one of them.

This is the kind of "above and beyond the call of duty" that is typical of most professional entomologists who consider it an obligation to interact with amateurs and the general public. I, for one, am eternally grateful, and could not produce this blog without their help.

Back to the grasshopper. Phoetaliotes nebrascensis is found in places other than Nebraska, ranging widely from southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba to extreme northern Mexico; and from eastern Washington and Oregon, the northeast corner of California, east to the northern half of Texas, Missouri, and Illinois to southwest Michigan, southern Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Adult specimens are most often found from late July through October, at least here in Colorado.

The mature insect measures 21-25 millimeters (males) or 23-33 millimeters (females), and typically has only very short front wings, missing the hind pair of wings entirely. They are therefore frequently confused with subadult specimens of other species. Occasionally there are fully-winged males of the Large-headed Grasshopper, but it is unusual to find them.

The color pattern of this species is so similar to other species that one cannot readily distinguish them based on those variable characters. Once again it is the shape of the male genitalia at the tip of the abdomen that is useful in identification. An overhead or rear view of the entire insect will, however, reveal the swollen head that gives this species its name. The head is noticeably wider than the thorax.

The Large-headed Grasshopper can be common in a variety of habitats, even being a dominant species, especially in tallgrass prairies. Both grasses and broadleaf herbs are on its menu, but it seems to prefer rangeland grasses. It is considered a low-grade pest at worst, but is usually inconsequential. It prospers with spring rains, populations rising dramatically under such conditions.

I can hardly wait to see what "new" grasshoppers turn up next year here in the Springs. There are some that I know occur here that I just haven't seen yet, so my bugwatching list is sure to grow.

Sources: Capinera, John L., Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates (Cornell University Press). 249 pp.
Capinera, J.L. and T.S. Sechrist. 1999. Grasshoppers (Acrididae) of Colorado: Identification, Biology, and Management. Fort Collins: Colorado State University Experiment Station Bulletin 584S.
Johnson, Dan L. 2008. Grasshopper Identification and Control Methods to Protect Crops and the Environment. Ottawa: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

Cudweed Grasshopper, Hypochlora alba

There is seemingly no end to the diversity of short-horned grasshoppers, family Acrididae, here in Colorado. Hiking the Rock Island Trail, a concrete bicycle path through east Colorado Springs, I added the thirty-ninth species of acridid I've seen here. Initially, I thought it might be a freshly-molted specimen of a familiar species since it was so very pale. On closer examination it proved to be a well-hardened adult of the Cudweed Grasshopper, Hypochlora alba.

Here it was, very late in autumn on October 24, yet there were still large numbers of grasshoppers present in the scrub and grassland habitat along a sandstone ridge that parallels the trail. Vegetation here is a little different than on the plains proper. Sure, there is still yucca, prickly-pear cacti, and rabbitbrush, but also Gambel's Oak, elm trees, cottonwoods, and other plants characteristic of upland habitats. Insect diversity is correspondingly unique.

The Cudweed Grasshopper, also known as the "Mugwort Grasshopper," is not a large insect. Males average 15 millimeters, females like this one only 20 millimeters, maybe slightly larger. This is decidedly a species of the Great Plains, found from southern Saskatchewan and Manitoba south through eastern Wyoming and Colorado to extreme western Minnesota, most of Iowa, Kansas, extreme northwest Missouri, Oklahoma, and north-central Texas. Adult specimens occur late in the season, from August through October.

What makes Hypochlora alba truly unique is that it is *not* a generalist feeder. While most 'hoppers enjoy munching various grasses and/or broadleaved herbs, the Cudweed Grasshopper feeds almost exclusively on Cudweed Sagewort, Artemisia ludoviciana. At least, it certainly doesn't stray far from other Artemisia species.

A. ludoviciana is a silvery-gray plant that also goes by the aliases "Silver Wormwood," "White Sagebrush," "Western Mugwort," and "Gray Sagewort" among others. I had to look it up online and I'm still not sure that it looks familiar. Then again, my "search image" is usually for insects, not plants.

One cannot always choose the best specimens as photographic subjects, and such is the case here. This is a female, missing one hind leg. She *is* an adult, though, despite the short wings. Many spur-throated grasshoppers in the subfamily Melanoplinae are short-winged, or have short-winged individuals or populations, which can make identifying them problematic, especially for novice entomologists. Further, species identification often hinges on the configuration of the male genitalia, cerci, and subgenital plate. Females don't have all of this....hardware.

I have to say I admire the subtle beauty of grasshoppers. They are supremely adapted to their habitat and food plants, so it takes patience and persistence to even notice them most of the time. Go take a look in your own neighborhood and see how many species you can find. You will be surprised, I guarantee it.

Sources: Capinera, John L., Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca, NY: Comstock Publishing Associates (Cornell University Press). 249 pp.
Ferguson, David J. 2010. "Species Hypochlora alba - Mugwort Grasshopper," Bugguide.net.
Helfer, Jacques R. 1972. How to Know the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and Their Allies (2nd edition). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 357 pp.
Pfadt, Robert E. 1996. "Cudweed Grasshopper." Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 912

Camel Crickets

At least once each year I am asked about spider-like creatures that jump, living in someone's basement, cellar, shed, garage, or home. People don't like to get too close to spidery-looking things, so sometimes the inquiring individual includes a picture, but often not. No matter, it is almost always "camel crickets" they are describing, from the family Rhaphidophoridae in the order Orthoptera.

Camel cricket, Crested Butte, Colorado

The common name of "camel cricket" may describe their hump-backed appearance, but these are not true crickets. Adults are wingless, for one thing, and thus unable to "sing." The exceptionally long antennae give these insects a sensory advantage in the perpetually cool, damp, dark habitats they mostly prefer: old wells, cellars, mine shafts, rodent burrows, basements, and caves (to which they owe their other common name, "cave crickets").

Adult camel crickets can be fairly large, with a body length varying from 9-35 millimeters depending on the species. The average legspan is even greater, which makes the whole insect appear larger. This can be intimidating to the average homeowner, no question.

Female Ceuthophilus sp., Colorado Springs, Colorado

Fortunately, camel crickets are not dangerous in the least, and rarely even do damage to property. Female camel crickets do bear a blade-like organ called an ovipositor that protrudes from the rear of the abdomen. This sword-like "tail" is often mistaken for some kind of stinger, but in reality it functions to insert eggs in the soil. Larger camel crickets can probably give you a good nip with their jaws, but good luck catching one. Many camel crickets can jump several feet when disturbed.

Ceuthophilus sp., Chicago area, Illinois

Like most members of the order Orthoptera, camel crickets are ominvorous. They feed on virtually anything organic, but have been known to damage paper products and occasionally fabrics. Some species are pests in mushroom-growing operations. Camel crickets will also capture and eat other insects and invertebrates, especially those that are injured or otherwise weakened.

Since camel crickets are highly moisture-dependent, keeping the below-ground areas of your home dry will discourage them from colonizing. They are not social in the sense of ants or bees, but seem to enjoy each other's company. Large numbers of them are often found hiding together under boards, stones, bricks, logs, leaf litter, and other debris.

Ceuthophilus sp., Madera Canyon, Arizona

There are roughly 150 species, in 21 genera (plural of genus), found in North America north of Mexico. Many of these are specialist species found only in cave systems, sand dunes, and similar geographically-isolated habitats. The "sand-treader" camel crickets, for example, are restricted to dunes, and equipped with long spines or "sand baskets" on their legs that help them dig in the soft, shifting sands. These and other arid-land inhabiting species are more robust and compact than their leggy forest- and cave-dwelling relatives. They are important scavengers of animal droppings and dried vegetable matter.

Greenhouse Stone Cricket, Leavenworth, Kansas

The Greenhouse Stone Cricket, Diestrammena asynamora, is native to China and other parts of Asia, but was established here in North America before 1900. This is fast becoming the most frequently-encountered camel cricket in urban areas east of the Rocky Mountains. As the name implies, it can do occasional damage to vulnerable young plants inside greenhouses.

Greenhouse Stone Cricket, Cape May, New Jersey

Our most common native camel crickets belong to the genus Ceuthophilus, which includes about 90 species. I often find them at night, clinging to the exterior of buildings, or clambering over rock walls, in rural areas. Nighttime is definitely the right time to find camel crickets in general, when the venture from their daytime shelters.

Ceuthophilus sp., southern Ohio

Entomologists attract camel crickets by laying a trail of dry oatmeal and returning at night to look for the insects. Molasses is also used as an attractant, smeared on tree trunks and logs.

Indoors, camel crickets may be grazing on mold, mildew, and fungi, so it might be wise to inspect for potential problems with those agents of decay should camel crickets appear in abundance.

Sources: Bartlett, Troy, et al. 2014. "Family Rhaphidophoridae - Camel Crickets," Bugguide.net.
Bland, Roger G. 2003. The Orthoptera of Michigan - Biology, Keys, and Descriptions of Grashoppers, Katydids, and Crickets. East Lansing: Michigan State University Extension. Extension Bulletin E-2815. 220 pp.
Helfer, Jacques R. 1972. How to Know the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and Their Allies (2nd Ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 359 pp.
Preston-Mafham, Ken. 1990. Grasshoppers & Mantids of the World. London: Blandford (Cassell plc). 192 pp.

Blue-winged Grasshopper

The band-winged grasshoppers in the subfamily Oedipodinae (family Acrididae) are easy to love. They are colorful and noisy in flight, seldom qualify as pests of agriculture or rangeland, and are endlessly diverse. A case in point is the beautiful Blue-winged Grasshopper, Trimerotropis cyaneipennis.

I first became acquainted with this species during childhood trips to eastern Oregon. They were fairly plentiful around Fort Rock in northern Lake County, but a real challenge to catch, even with a net. Nothing has changed, it took me several tries to net one that Heidi and I encountered in Water Canyon in the Magdalena Mountains of New Mexico last Sunday. I wanted to show Heidi, and my readers here, the blue-green hind wings that give this species its common name.

Like all members of the genus Trimerotrois, T. cyaneipennis is incredibly cryptic when at rest among rocks, or on bare soil. The front wings, called tegmina (singular is "tegmen"), are narrow and in this case speckled with brown, gray, and black, creating vague bands. The hind wings are used in flight, and fold like a Japanese fan, accordion-like, when not in use, concealed beneath the tegmina.

Even if you can follow the flight path of one of these insects, and note where it lands again, good luck spotting it unless it moves. Actually, it might even walk a short distance once it does land, making it even more maddening to locate.

The cloak of (near) invisibility works well, despite the fact that these are not small creatures. Adult males measure 25-35 millimeters, females 28-40 millimeters. Besides the blue hind wings, they can be identified in part by the bright blue tibia ("shin") segment of the hind leg, and the blue tint on the abdomen, visible in the image below.

This grasshopper is most common in rugged, mountainous terrain and canyons at elevations between 3,000 and, 8,500 feet. Look for them along gravel roads, and volcanic soils, especially at the base of steep slopes. They tend to favor oak, pinyon-juniper, or pine forests west of the Rocky Mountains from southeast Washington, Idaho, eastern Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, southwest Colorado, Arizona, western New Mexico and extreme west Texas. They also range just across the Mexican border.

You might hear this grasshopper when it takes flight, as it generates a loud crackling sound as the veins of the hind wing rubs against the underneath surface of the tegmen. This is called "crepitation," and can be initiated at will by the insect, such that it can also fly silently.

There is continuing debate over the exact status of this species, and in southeast Wyoming, central Colorado, and much of eastern New Mexico, it is replaced by the closely-related "Brother's Band-winged Grasshopper," Trimerotropis fratercula. That species has yellow, or greenish-yellow hind wings, but even T. cyaneipennis does not always have obviously blue or turquoise wings.

Since this is more or less a "wilderness" grasshopper that does not eat crops or rangeland forage, it is not considered a pest. All the more reason to enjoy an encounter with this blue-winged beauty.

Sources: Bentley, Tom and David Ferguson. 2007. "Species Trimerotropis cyaneipennis - Blue-winged Grasshopper," Bugguide.net.
Capinera, John L., Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca: Comstock Publishing Associates (Cornell University Press). 249 pp.
Helfer, Jacques R. 1972. How to Know the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches and Their Allies (2nd Ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 359 pp.

Great Crested Grasshopper

Yesterday was "OrThoptera Thursday" in the truest sense. I had the car at my disposal, thanks to my wife and a co-worker carpooling, so I drove out into the rural plains of eastern El Paso County in search of grasshoppers. This was the first time since my arrival in Colorado that I simply went out walking in the vast shortgrass prairie east of Colorado Springs. Much to my delight, I managed to find the creature at the top of my list: the Great Crested Grasshopper, Tropidolophus formosus.

This species is also known as the "dinosaur grasshopper" for the resemblance of its pronotal crest to the fin-like structure on the back of Dimetrodon dinosaurs. The grasshopper's crest is studded with fine, prickly teeth on the rear half, barely discernible in the images shown here.

These are large insects, adult males attaining a length of 35-46 millimeters, and female 38-50 millimeters. Males are fully-winged, but the wings of the female are short, barely extending half the length of the abdomen. Despite their size and ungainly appearance, they are wary and surprisingly agile, not to mention cryptic. The only way I managed to find them was by flushing them from the vicinity of dense vegetation and hoping I could follow their flight path. I never did find a female.

The Great Crested Grasshopper is one of the band-winged grasshoppers in the subfamily Oedipodinae, family Acrididae. The hind wings are a lovely vermillion, with a diffuse dark band near the wing margin, as shown here. In flight the species is not easily confused with other red-winged grasshoppers.

The references I have consulted indicate that males have a noisy flight, especially in courtship displays, but all the individuals I encountered flew silently....and far. Invariably, it seemed, they always flew to the other side of the barbwire fence.

The preferred food of this grasshopper is apparently globemallows, (Sphaeralcea spp.), Malvastrum, and other members of the family Malvaceae. It has also been found in association with Buffalo Bur, Solanum rostratum. Because it does not favor crop plants or rangeland forage consumed by cattle, the Great Crested Grasshopper is not considered a pest species. Further, it is not terribly abundant. I found a grand total of about eight or ten specimens yesterday, in hours of looking.

Tropidolophus formosus is not widely distributed, found mostly in the southern Great Plains, but ranging from southeast Wyoming and southwest Nebraska south through eastern Colorado, western Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, eastern New Mexico, and southeast Arizona. It is also found in northwestern Mexico. Adult specimens can be found from July through October across that area.

The plains and prairies may seem devoid of life except for the occasional herd of deer, pronghorn, or bison, or soaring hawk, but look closer and you will find an abundance and surprising diversity of life, from reptiles (two lizards and one snake for me yesterday) to insects. I encourage you to explore that biome, and do so often. The animals you find will vary dramatically depending on drought or monsoon conditions.

Sources: Capinera, John L., Ralph D. Scott, and Thomas J. Walker. 2004. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Ithaca: Comstock Publishing Associates (Cornell University Press). 249 pp.
Helfer, Jacques R. 1972. How to Know the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and Their Allies (2nd ed.). Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company Publishers. 359 pp.