Species Schistocerca lineata - Spotted Bird Grasshopper

Lined Bird Grasshopper

Sand Bird Grasshopper

Plains Bird Grasshopper

Acridium emarginata Scudder, 1872 [nomen oblitum]. Type locality: banks of Platte River, Nebraska

Schistocerca lineata Scudder, 1899 [nomen protectum]. Type locality: Barber County, Kansas

Schistocerca venusta Scudder, 1899. Type locality: Indio California (by later lectotype designation of Rehn & Hebard, 1912)

guide slightly narrowing toward apex, slightly curved

Schistocerca scudderi Bruner, 1906 [superfluous replacement name]

Schistocerca alutacea lineata (Scudder) Dirsh, 1974

Schistocerca emarginata (Scudder) Vickery & D.K.M. Kevan, 1986

See Internet Resource #1 for more info.

Male. Medium size (TL 32-50 mm), Female. Much larger than Male (TL 45-69 mm).

Yellowish, brownish, or greenish, usually with distinct pits on the thorax and yellowish dots. Usually there are no large contrasting yellowish spots on the sides of the thorax above the hind legs, but some individuals show indications of these. Usually the coloring is distinctly darker on top than on sides, and with a narrow contrasting pale stripe down the back of the head, pronotum and folded tegmina. Only uncommonly is the stripe reduced in intensity, and rarely missing. The tegmina usually do not contrast in color with the rest of the body, but may be somewhat browner in green individuals. The abdomen usually has a row of dark (usually black) dots near the rear edge of the sides of each segment (may be faint or sometimes absent in far western green specimens). The hind femur is nearly plain in color, but most often there are some black dots, and two darker bars across the top (which may be very faint or absent); there is usually a dark to black stripe at the top sides and front edge of the otherwise pale "knee" on the femur. The hind tibiae are usually yellowish, tan, brown, black, or, (in green individuals) red. The front and middle femora of males are distinctly swollen. The antennae are very long.

S. lineata meets S. alutacea in the Central Lowlands and Northeast, and can be very difficult to distinguish from it; the primary distinctions being in genitalia and less swollen male front and middle femora. S. alutacea frequently is usually "plainer" in coloring; often lacks the yellow dots; the pale stripe is more often (not always) reduced in the tegmina; and the tegmina are often distinctly darker than the sides of the body; occasionally there is a faint mottling of dark spots on the tegmina that is rarely seen in S. lineata. They may be regional subspecies, as some observations imply that they seem to blend into one another. Currently they are treated as distinct but closely related "sibling" species.

S. rubiginosa is very close to S. alutacea and also similar to some S. lineata, but differs somewhat in proportions (larger head, smaller male cercus, etc.), habitat preference, usually has the tegmina mottled, and often totally lacks the pale stripe on the back. Mostly it is found southeast of S. lineata. It is debated whether S. alutacea and S. rubiginosa are different species or not.

Riparian populations of S. lineata on the Great Plains, especially from Kansas and Colorado southward, often contain green individuals with red hind tibiae, but these are otherwise more like the eastern brown populations than the western green "venusta" type.

S. obscura is also very similar, but almost always olive in color, with the tegmina plain darker brown, almost always with contrasting yellow marks on the sides of the thorax, and dark bars on the hind femora normally are contrasting and reach well onto the sides. The front and middle femora of males are not so swollen, and the hind tibiae are usually purplish to black (nearly always red in green individuals of S. lineata, which are also usually lighter in color throughout). S. obscura usually has the lobes of the male subgenital plate distinctly flaring out toward the margins and the notch usually more "V"-shaped, while in S. lineata the lobes are little flaring and the notch is more "U"-shaped. Individuals of S. obscura in the southeast from Virginia and Florida to Louisiana sometimes look a great deal like S. alutacea and S. lineata in patterning, but are typical of S. obscura structure and color, and there are no S. lineata found in that part of the world.

S. albolineata is found in the Southwest, and structurally much like S. obscura, and is green to blackish, usually with contrasting cream to yellow markings on the sides of the thorax (including the pronotum) and bold contrasting dark (very dark to black) markings (notably on the on the hind femur). It is often found with S. lineata, but favors more broken arid to semi-arid rocky terrain with thorny scrub or woodland growth.

S. shoshone is very closely related to S. lineata differing in it's plain pattern with little dark markings of any sort. It is usually pale green in color, usually has no pale stripe down the back (though sometimes it is faintly indicated on the pronotum), and the eyes (in life) are usually distinctly blue (usually duller and darker in western S. lineata. S. shoshone averages large in size and occurs mostly in moist riparian environments within hot summer desert areas of the Southwest. Structurally the two "species" cannot be reliably distinguished, but they occur as two separate entities that sometimes may be found side by side but distinct from one another. Generally when in the same area, S. shoshone will be dominant in the irrigated and riparian bottomlands, and S. lineata will be in well-vegetated or sandy areas up out of the valleys. Apparently they have been hybridized in captivity to produce fertile offspring, but this doesn't seem to be documented in literature (???).

This is the most widely distributed species of Schistocerca in North America, occuring from California, Oregon, and Idaho east to at least Manitoba, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and east Texas; and from southern Canada to northern Mexico. There are differences quoted in the literature as to it's eastern limits, probably based entirely on confusion between S. lineata and other species. Specimens morphology fitting S. lineata occur to the Atlantic Coast between New Hampshire and Virginia, and to Mississippi in the south.

Song examined specimens collected from Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Colorado, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Its distribution extends north to Manitoba and Alberta, Canada. (From internet source #1)

Abundant in sandy areas but is also frequently found in other sunny, well-vegetated habitats such as shrubland, riparian areas, ditch-banks, etc. Rarely found in forested or desert environments, but enters these areas where acceptable habitats occur with them.

Overwinters as eggs in soil, hatches in late spring, and usually matures in about June or July. Most abundant as adults in summer, but many live until hard freezes of autumn or early winter finally kill them. Some individuals in far south survive until the following spring, but not as often seen in winter there as some other species.

The "typical" form blends with the green western form that was formerly often known as S. venusta in Colorado and New Mexico; green "venusta" occurring mostly in and west of the Rockies, and typical brownish "lineata" eastward from the mountains. Both of these meet the plain (unstriped) green S. shoshone southward, remain distinct from it, and seem to be a different species from it; though, occasional specimens don't seem to fit under any name properly.

There is an "aposematic form", which is yellowish with striking markings that is found in the south (mostly in OK & TX), which is given it's own heading here. Intermediates between "normal" coloring and the "aposematic" form are not uncommon, and may resemble S. obscura; however, the contrasting yellowish and dark coloring, and often blue eyes are usually enough to separate them from that species.

1.Revision of the Alutacea Group of Genus Schistocerca