Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#1044942
unid Grasshopper, maybe Melanoplus - Schistocerca damnifica - female

unid Grasshopper, maybe Melanoplus - Schistocerca damnifica - Female
Pinellas County, Florida, USA
August 31, 2014
I've changed my mind on this grasshopper several times now and currently think it might be a Melanoplus. I think the pronotum has the shape of that genus. But, I'm not sure if what I am seeing below this grasshopper is a spur. I see something hanging down forward of the legs and also something hanging down between the legs. The lighting is blown out, plus I don't know what it is suppose to look like.

Any help is appreciated.

Images of this individual: tag all
unid Grasshopper, maybe Melanoplus - Schistocerca damnifica - female unid Grasshopper, maybe Melanoplus - Schistocerca damnifica - female unid Grasshopper, maybe Melanoplus - Schistocerca damnifica - female

with this photo alone
I would have hesitated about whether this is S. rubiginosa or S. damnifica, except that the antennae are rather short for S. rubiginosa. The next photo shows the strongly raised median ridge of the pronotum, the wideness of the antennae, and other features that point to this definitely being S. damnifica.

Keys in literature often state that S. damnifica has antennae shorter than the head and pronotum together, and then proceed to show a photo in which the opposite is true. Actually it varies, but in females the wide slightly flattened antennae are usually about as long as head + pronotum or slightly shorter, and in males they are usually slightly longer than in females. They are longer in some populations than in others. Also, since the head moves in relation to the pronotum, the measurement is not an exact one, and in photos the antennae are often at an angle, making them look shorter than they are. In S. rubiginosa antennae are usually conspicuously longer and more slender (often near the length of the hind femur in males), not obviously flattened, but the same problem with perspective can occur in photos.

Moved from Bird Grasshoppers.

female Schistocerca sp.
Moved from ID Request.

Both this and Melanoplus have the prosternal process/spur, but Schistocerca are usually bigger and have a slightly different shape. Also, this photo shows the underside of the thorax, where you can see that the "mesosternal lobes are longer than wide" (see the key on this site). I suspect this one is S. rubiginosa.

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.