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Species Melanoplus tuberculatus - Quanah Grasshopper

Melanoplus sp.? - Melanoplus tuberculatus - male Melanoplus sp.? - Melanoplus tuberculatus - male GH - Melanoplus tuberculatus - female GH09-14a - Melanoplus tuberculatus GH09-14a - Melanoplus tuberculatus GH - Melanoplus tuberculatus - female Melanoplus tuberculatus newly molted - Melanoplus tuberculatus - female Melanoplus ? - Melanoplus tuberculatus - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Caelifera (Grasshoppers)
Family Acrididae (Short-horned Grasshoppers)
Subfamily Melanoplinae (Spur-throated Grasshoppers)
Tribe Melanoplini
Genus Melanoplus
Species tuberculatus (Quanah Grasshopper)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Melanoplus tuberculatus Morse 1906. Described from Quanah, Hardeman County and Wichita Falls, Wichita County, Texas [lectotype designated by Morse & Hebard, 1915 from Quanah, Texas]
Identification
An average looking brownish (or green) species of Melanoplus. Dark markings often not strongly developed nor contrasting. Hind tibiae usually yellowish to greenish, or sometimes pale bluish. Subgenital plate of male evenly rounded when viewed from above, but somewhat pointed just below the rear margin. Male furculae well-developed, but short, roughly blunt triangular in shape (longer than wide) and roughly parallel. Male cerci distinctive in shape, with base wide, narrowing rapidly before middle, and also distinctly bent upward and inward near middle; with remainder longer than wide with sides somewhat parallel, tip rounded, and somewhat concave on outer face. Females look like males they occur with, and have wings usually reaching about to tip of hind femorae = the "knees" [usually somewhat longer in males]. Eyes of living insects usually have roughly the front half (and often lower part) distinctly lighter in color than the rest, but this can darken or lighten depending on the weather and time of day/night. Pronotum (as seen from above) with the principal sulcus (the strongest and rear-most cross groove) cutting the midline roughly at or slightly behind (mostly in males) the middle.
Several species are similar in appearance, and females may be difficult to separate if not in the company of males. Several similar looking species always or often have red hind tibiae; several usually or often have bright blue hind tibiae; few species commonly have have pale yellowish to greenish hind tibiae, which seem the prevalent colors in M. tuberculatus. Also, few similar species have a green adult color phase. Most similar-looking species have males with one or more of the following differences: prominent furculae; subgenital plate of a different shape (tip notched; wide and concave when viewed from behind; not evenly rounded when viewed from above; or, without an apical tubercle); mesosternum with a bump near the middle; cerci of a distinctly different shape; proportion of areas of pronotum in front of and behind principal sulcus different (when viewed from above); etc.
M. lakinus (when long-winged) seems most similar morphologically, but is often more strongly patterned with dark; with the hind femur usually reddish on the lower inner portion; and with the hind tibiae usually distinctly blue. The midline of the pronotum is cut further back, and the male cerci are shorter, more swollen at the base, and with the narrow apical portion more abruptly narrowed and much smaller (appearing in outline rather like a finger sticking up from a balled fist). The male subgenital plate has the tubercle at the upper margin usually larger, and usually with two instead of one "bump". M. lakinus has a much larger, more western, but probably overlapping natural distribution.

Young nymphs usually (? always) have a "tiger-striped" pattern that is shared with at most only a few other species (M. lakinus nymphs are very similar). In older nymphs the pattern becomes more "typical" of the genus, but the age of the change seems to vary from individual to individual. As is common in this genus, the coloring of the nymph varies a lot, and may be nearly white, yellowish, various shades of brown, green, pinkish, or various combinations. The eyes usually (? always) have pale dots or dashes (on young nymphs they may be pale stripes).

Tip of male abdomen
Range
Not well documented, but known in Texas east from the Caprock and lower Rio Grande, and from near the Red River in the north, south to near the southern tip of the state. Almost certainly also in southern Oklahoma.
Habitat
Apparently favors open grassland areas.
Season
apparently overwinters as eggs in ground, with nymphs in spring and adults from spring to early winter.
Internet References
The original description of the species can currently be seen here