Identification
Melanoplus thomasi is usually a richer green or bluish color, has more striking pale stripes along the margins of the upper side, and has a longitudinal dark stripe on the outer hind femur instead of dark cross bands.
Similar to M. differentialis, but wings usually shorter, coloring more contrasting, with dark markings more developed; on thorax usually fused into more solid and bold dark patches, and on the hind femur broken into black cross bands (often solid rather than of herring-bone type). M. bivitattus may look similar, but occurs further north and has the same femur pattern as M. thomasi.
Close to M. ponderosus, but markings considerably "crisper" and more contrasting than usual in that species, with dark markings usually decidedly black. Always(?) with wings fully developed (but still relatively short, reaching to tip of hind femur, give or take a bit). Wings are variable, but often much shorter in M. ponderosus. The male cerci of M. eumera are somewhat smaller and less strongly lobed below than in M. ponderosus.
M. franciscanus is much smaller, occurs at higher elevations, and has a narrower cercus more dumbbell-shaped and more evenly rounded at the end. It has pale dorsal stripes usually more developed. Occasionally specimens appear to be intermediate in character and it is possible (though unsubstantiated) that the two occasionally hybridize.
Tip of male abdomen
Range
Mountainous areas of west Texas, mostly within the Trans-Pecos, and in south-central New Mexico, almost certainly into adjacent Chihuahua Mexico.
Habitat
Desert Canyons have been been recorded as a habitat. In the original description it is said to be found in brush covered areas, and found abundant only on a steap north-facing slope. At Sanderson, in dry grass in the bed of a stream and on a slope. It apparently favors areas of moderately heavy vegetation within arid environments. In the Guadalupe Mountains southeastern Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico it is found abundantly in diverse habitats, but mostly on steep slopes and in canyons where vegetation is heavier than average, and mostly lower in elevation than the Ponderosa Pine belt.
Season
Mostly with immatures present in summer and adults in late summer until killed by cold in autumn or early winter.
Life Cycle
Overwinters as eggs, probably laid in the ground.
Remarks
A very striking species that had been confused with closely related
M. ponderosus. It is treated as a distinct species in the
Orthoptera Species File, with no indication of having been treated as a subspecies or synonym, so is also treated separately here. It is however possible that this is merely a strikingly colored regional variant of
M. ponderosus. Specimens of
M. ponderosus from central Texas often approach
M. eumera in larger size and in having similar bold coloring, and field studies are needed to see if the populations form a continuum. Rare
M. ponderosus found in northeastern New Mexico do not look much like
M. eumera (duller in coloring with less developed dark patterning), but are equally large in size.
