Species Trimerotropis californica - Strenuous Grasshopper

Trimerotropis californica Bruner, 1889, from San Luis Valley, California

Trimerotropis montana McNeill, 1900, from Boise City, Idaho

Trimerotropis strenua McNeill, 1901, from Salt Lake Valley, Utah

Trimerotropis alliciens Scudder, 1902, from La Cueva, [west base of] Organ Mountains, New Mexico [has often been mistakenly synonymized under T. modesta.]

Pseudotrimerotropis californica (Bruner) Kirby, 1910

Pseudotrimerotropis montana (McNeill) Kirby, 1910

Pseudotrimerotropis strenua (McNeill) Kirby, 1910

Usually with contrasting dark crossbands crossing tegmina, and spaces between light in color. Hind tibiae bright orange to red. Inner hind femora yellow with black cross bands. Hind wing base yellow with moderately wide curving black cross band and distinct spur pointing toward the base (but usually reaching less than half way). Sometimes the dark band fades out toward the outer margin (lower end) and doesn't make the curve around the outer edge. The pronotum nearly always has a tooth at the lower rear margin of the lateral lobes.

Most easily confused with T. pistrinaria, which is generally stockier with a larger rounded head; with wings usually proportionately shorter and broader; with lateral margins of top of pronotum more rounded into the sides than angled; with inner face of hind femur often (not always) black with only one pale cross band; with no tooth on the lower margins of the pronotum.

Both species make a loud harsh uninterrupted buzz in flight.

In California, T. californica is replaced westward by, and might be confused with T. pacifica (with usually pale yellowish hind tibiae, and more often a reduced dark hind wing band). Also, in southern California near the coast is T. topanga (with blue hind tibiae). These both probably represent only regional variants of T. californica (in which case Trimerotropis pacifica is the older name for the species, and would replace the name californica).

Sometimes confused with closely related T. latifasciata, especially if the tooth on the pronotum is reduced or missing. T. latifasciata, has a noticeably broader wing band with a usually very short spur, and the top of the abdomen is usually reddish (sometimes it is slightly reddish in T. californica, but it is not so noticeable. T. latifasciata also is generally a bit stocker in build. The two usually aren't found together, with T. latifasciata favoring eroded adobe, silty, or somewhat saline habitats in valley bottoms. Often T. latifasciata becomes very abundant in tilled fallow fields and along dirt roads in these same valley bottoms, while T. californica rarely does. T. latifasciata produces a similar crepitation sound, but it is usually distinctly punctuated by short breaks as the insect flies.

In sandy areas on the southern Colorado Plateaus the coloration of T. californica may be much less contrasting, and they then look a lot like closely related T. maritima ssp. citrina, but that species occurs further east. There are a few records of T. citrina from this region that probably are misidentifications of this variant of T. californica. Luckily, where the two sometimes occur together in New Mexico and Texas, they are not difficult to tell apart.

Southern and eastern California, northern Baja California, and eastern Oregon eastward into Idaho, western Colorado, New Mexico, and west Texas; southward on the Central Plateau of Mexico to San Luis Potosi.

Varied, but most often exposed nearly level to gently sloping gravelly areas with little vegetation. Sometimes common in sandy areas, especially in northern Arizona and southeastern Utah.

Overwinters as eggs. Adults late spring or summer to frost, often varying timing with rainfall, and in the south perhaps with two broods per season.

Often very common, and will occasionally come to lights at night.

Original description of Trimerotropis alliciens in Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, vol.9, p.37, and pl.2 fig.1