Species Trimerotropis maritima - Seaside Grasshopper

Sand Grasshopper

Locusta maritima Harris, 1841, from Nantucket, Massachusetts

Trimerotropis maritima interior E. M. Walker, 1898, from Toronto Island, Ontario

Trimerotropis citrina Scudder, 1876, from Dallas, Texas

Trimerotropis rubripes Rehn, 1904, from Albuquerque, New Mexico (the same as citrina

Trimerotropis acta Hebard, 1915, from Miami Beach, Florida

In Words by William Whitaker, "maritima" translates to "of/near/by the sea".

In most areas, a medium-sized speckled grasshopper looking much like the sane it is living on, with reddish hind tibiae and yellow wings crossed by a broad black band is likely to be this species. This species will often crepitate in flight, with the sound being a relatively loud and continuous harsh buzz, a little like running something along the teeth of a comb.

Westward on the Great Plains Trimerotropis agrestis takes over, and is very similar. T. maritima is mainly distinguished from that species by usually having the inside of the hind femur yellowish and crossed by black bands, while it is usualy red, and often with little or no dark coloring in T. agrestis. T. agrestis has more strongly projecting lower rear angles of the pronotum.

Most other similar looking species living on sand will have a high pronotal crest cut only once (twice in T. maritima), will have better defined dark bands across the tegmina, will be smaller, will have thicker antennae, and/or will have larger dark spots and occur mostly in spring instead of summer/autumn.

In the far east, T. maritima sometimes has yellowish hind tibiae instead of orange or red, but it's size, habitat, and appearance should make it still easy to recognize.

Atlantic Coast nearly to the east base of the Rockies, and barely into southern Canada.

Sandy areas, mostly on beaches or in dunes, in sandy pine barrens, on riverine sand bars, in dry sandy washes, or sometimes along sandy dirt roads in old fields, and in similar disturbed sandy places. The key word is "sand".

Varies with latitude, but mostly overwinters as eggs, and adults occur late spring to frost. In some areas eggs may remain under water for some time, and will not hatch until water recedes, and in some seasons the species may not be seen at all, or adults may not mature until autumn.

The species level distinction between T. maritima and T. agrestis is probably artificial. The two intergrade where they meet, and intermediate individuals and populations are common on the Great Plains. Generally T. maritima ssp. citrina occurs along rivers and washes in low lying areas, while T. agrestis occurs primarily in "blowout" areas in the "sandhills" of the Great Plains. Where the sandhills (dunes) and the riparian sands meet, the two "species" blend freely. As one moves eastward away from the Rockies, the agrestis types become more ane more likecitrina in appearance, and eventually cannot be found anymore as the tallgrass prairie regions are reached. Following the valleys westward, the citrina types vanish near the eastern borders of Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, but citrina does occur along the Rio Grande Valley into northern New Mexico. The two types should probably be considered as subspecies of one species, just as citrina is now considered a part of T. maritima.

The relationship between typical ssp. maritima and ssp. citrina is very similar in the east to that described here between T. agrestis and T. maritima ssp. citrina, and this is why these are considered to be one species. Not all authors treat them as one.

"Typical" eastern T. maritima ssp. maritima is also a dune (or beach) insect, and it looks very nearly identical to T. agrestis, but there is no contact between them, the inner hind femur is patterned differently, and ssp. citrina occupies the territory between them.

Capinera, p. 105 & plate 18 (1)