Brown grasshopper in sand - Morsea

Morsea

never noticed these in the guide before..love it made me laugh..will keep my eye peeled when i go to Az this comming month
stoppin along the way to look inna bushes.

… Edna Woodward, 27 February, 2013 - 5:46pm

definitely a Monkey Grasshopper

These are probably more widespread and common in that region than literature would indicate. People tend not to notice them unless they are looking for them, and even then they get missed; so, they can go totally unnoticed even in fairly well sampled areas.

If this is a named species, it will be Morsea kaibabensis; however, there is a possibility that this represents an unnamed species.

It is hard to say for sure what it was feeding on, but figuring that out will make it (probably) easy to find more. I believe they always feed on woody plants, and they seen to have a fondness for small-leaved shrubs in the Rose Family. I would think that things like Purshia or Coleogyne might be candidates in the Escalante area. Some populations use woody Eriogonum species, or other things, so the possibilities might be several. Usually where you see one out in the open, you can find many in the proper bushes (or trees) nearby. They are tiny, agile, and hard to follow though. This is a female, which is considerably larger than the males.

As for coloring, it varies individually, in the same population some my be very plain (especially females) and others relatively strongly patterned. The actual hue can vary too, usually browns or grays to match the stems of the plants they live in or their surroundings, but I've seen bright green females among the gray and brown ones too - in California species.

I think some people still consider all of the U.S. populations of Morsea to belong to the one species - M. californica, but others divide them up. You will find them listed both ways, but the trend now is toward "species" splitting (even when the "species" blend into one another).

Moved from ID Request.

… David J. Ferguson, 27 February, 2013 - 12:45pm

Thanks so much

I appreciate how much work it must take to do all of these IDs. It makes it exciting and so much more rewarding to take these photos. I appreciate your help. These are really hard to find again once they jump.

… Lon Brehmer and Enriqueta Flores-Guevara, 4 March, 2013 - 2:25pm

Garfield county AZ?

Escalante Monument in Wayne County, Utah?

… margarethe brummermann, 26 February, 2013 - 5:51pm

Thank you

and sorry about getting the wrong state in - sometimes I get distracted. I thought it looked like a "monkey grasshopper" from some others I'd seen in Panama, but I didn't know there were any around here. Just comparing with the photos here on BG, it looks a lot like the Morsea californica, except the markings on the femur are more like the M. dumicola; I have no idea if it might match one of the species are not yet represented in BG. Thank you as always.

… Lon Brehmer and Enriqueta Flores-Guevara, 27 February, 2013 - 8:57am

There is no Garfield County i

There is no Garfield County in AZ--Grand Staircase-Escalante is in Kane and Garfield Counties. So I'm guessing they meant Garfield County, UT. ETA: yep.

… Melissa Barton, 26 February, 2013 - 6:26pm

Looks like a Monkey!

seriously, Morsea

… margarethe brummermann, 26 February, 2013 - 5:45pm