Two-striped grasshopper

IUCN Red List

not listed

NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

Minnesota

not listed

Two-striped grasshopper is a large, very common and widespread, long-winged, spur-throated, short-horned grasshopper. It is highly variable in appearance but a few distinctive features, and its near ubiquity, make it relatively easy to identify.

The overall coloration is usually yellowish-green to brown, rarely light green, with dark markings. The female is larger than the male.

The face is vertical. The top of the head (vertex) is rounded in profile. The antennae are yellowish-brown to brown and are no more than ½ the length of the body.

The plate covering the upper side of the thorax (pronotum) is flat above, not keeled, and broadly rounded at the end (posteriorly). It does not project over the abdomen. The upper side and upper lateral portions are blackish or brownish. A pair of yellow horizontal stripes extend from the above the compound eyes, over the head, and across the top of the lateral lobe of the pronotum, ending abruptly at the hindmost ridge (principle sulcus). There is a distinct, spiny bump (spur) at the base of the neck, between the base of the forelegs.

There is a pair of flat, round, hearing organs (tympani) on the sides of the first abdominal segment. The lower end plate beneath the genitalia (the subgenital plate) is bulbous. On the male, the top edge of the subgenital plate abruptly curves upward. The sensory appendages at the end of the abdomen (cerci) are roughly boot shaped. On the female the ovipositor is short.

The wings are long, brown or blackish, and well developed. They extend to the tip or almost to the tip of the abdomen when at rest. The forewings (tegmina) are dark and are not spotted. They have a pair of yellow, horizontal stripes that appear as a continuation of the stripes on the pronotum and head. The stripes converge at the end of the tegmina forming a triangle. The hindwings are clear, not banded or patterned, and are roughened on the upper surface.

On the hind pair of legs, the outer face of the robust, third segment (femur) is dark on the upper half, dull yellow on the lower half. It is not banded. The dark and yellow regions are sharply demarcated. On all of the legs, the end section corresponding to the foot (tarsus) is divided into three segments and is arched in the middle. The color of the fourth segment (tibia) on the hind leg is highly variable. In the northern wooded areas of Minnesota, only individuals with pink hind tibia are found. In other areas of the state, the hind tibia may be pink, yellowish buff to orangish buff, half yellowish and half bluish, deep dull blue, greenish, or dark. They are never red. They have an outer row of 15 or more spines. The spines, at least at the tip, are black.

The description above refers to the middle western population, formerly subspecies Melanoplus bivittatus bivittatus. In the eastern and west coast populations, formerly subspecies Melanoplus bivittatus femoratus, the overall coloration is often green. The hind femur is not sharply bicolored and may have a herringbone pattern. The hind tibia are always red.

Size

Male: 1⅛″ to 1 3 ⁄16″

Female: 1 7 ⁄16″ to 2 3 ⁄16″

Similar Species

Upland fields, wood margins, marshes.

Season

Later June to early October

Behavior

They produce a low buzzing sound by rubbing the roughened hindwings against the hardened forewings.

Life Cycle

The female deposits a clutch of 50 to 108 eggs in the soil at the base of a plant. The eggs overwinter and hatch in the early spring.

Nymph Food

Shoots and other easily digested parts of the same plants that adults feed on.

Adult Food

A wide variety of mostly forbs but also grasses.