Explanation of Names
This is perhaps an artificial group of genera, but these are all similar, and even sometimes confused with one another. Most feed on Asteraceae, though one genus and species [Chloroplus cactocaetes] is known to feed on Cactaceae. Aztecacris, also known to feed on Asteraceae, and similar in color pattern, may belong here as well, but it shows noticeable similarity to Dactylotum in structural characeristics.
The members have been variously placed mostly into the tribes Dactylotini and Melanoplini, but molecular studies have shown that at least some are misplaced as such. However, such studies have not included all genera as yet, and the tribes Dactylotini and Melanoplini as traditionally defined are both clearly artificial groupings. Conflicting results in the same molecular studies do not clearly resolve where studied genera listed here belong as yet, though they would seem more closely related to the the tribe Melanoplini (as currently defined) than to the Dactylotini. For convenience, and until relationships are better understood, they are grouped together here within an unnamed grouping. This keeps together genera that are structurally and visually very similar.
Should this group (or part of it) be shown to be a natural assemblage, it would probably eventually bear the tribe name "Hesperotettigini".
Identification
Characteristics common to most species include a relatively slender body (at least from side to side). Male subgenital plate with top edge nearly level and not raised prominently higher at top front sides than sternite of previous segment (except in Gymnoscirtetes morsei); with a tubercle at apex (may be low and inconspicuous). Male cerci taper to a narrow (often pointed) tip. Male furculae reduced to nubs. Coloration is typically green or greenish (sometimes varying in some individuals to gray, brownish, or yellowish), often with pale and dark mottling and stripes, and often with reddish markings on legs and reddish stripe on top of pronotum. Most are associated with plants in the Asteraceae (except for Chloropus, which is associated with Cylindropuntia in the Cactaceae).
Print References
Litzenberger & Chapco, 2003. 'The North American Melanoplinae (Orthoptera: Acrididae): A Molecular Phylogenetic Study of Their Origins and Taxonomic Relationships'. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 90(4): 491-497
Chintauan-Marquier, et al, 2011. 'Evolutionary History and Taxonomy of a Short-horned Grasshopper Subfamily: The Melanoplinae (Orthoptera: Acrididae)'. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 58: 22-32
Woller, et al, 2014. 'Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Liladownsia fraile, a new genus and species of Dactylotini (Acrididae: Melanoplinae) and an updated molecular phylogeny of Melanoplinae'. Zootaxa 3793(4): 475-495
