Species Dissosteira carolina - Carolina Grasshopper

Carolina Locust

Road Duster

Black-winged Grasshopper

Quaker

32-58 mm

Large. Long broad wings. High sharp ridge on pronotum with one deep cut. Color variable: various earth tones in shades from yellowish, reddish, or brown to grays or nearly black; rarely slightly greenish or bluish; typically rather even in coloring, but often speckled or mottled somewhat darker; sometimes with two irregular darker bands crossing tegmina. Hind wings distinctive, black except for yellow outer border. Hind tibiae brownish to yellow. "A strong flier, often seen hovering or in a zig-zag, fluttering flight of courtship." (1) Appears butterfly-like in flight. Males (mostly) crepitate faintly in flight, and stridulate (sing) by rubbing hind legs on tegmina.

Pronotum

Hind wing

Similar Dissosteira longipennis usually has more contrasting and obvious spotting over much of body and tegmina, and wings have a clear to pale white margin and base with a bluish tinge at very base. Head is proportionately larger. More restricted in distribution; found on Great Plains between roughly Wyoming & Nebraska and New Mexico & northern Texas (sometimes straying into bordering regions in high population years).

Often confused with Mourning Cloak butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa) due to similar size and wing coloring, but body shape and behavior is quite different, so any confusion should be short-lasting.

Most of lower 48 United States except southern Florida, Gulf Coastal Plain, southwest Arizona, and bottom 2/3rds of California. (1) Also across southern Canada and into northern Mexico.

Found often along roadsides, nearly bare ground.

Mid-summer to fall. May-November (mid-latitudes). Late June-October (Michigan). June-frost (North Carolina).

Grasses, forbs, horsetails (Equisetum).

Commonly attracted to lights at night.

Often mistaken for a butterfly due to large size and rather lazy bobbing flight. Probably the band-winged grasshopper most familiar to the most people in North America, due to its preference for disturbed, often dusty habitats, such as dirt roads, paths, vacant lots, etc. Flight display is notable, quoting from USDA species account (2):

"Males are noted for their hovering flight. They rise almost vertically from the ground to heights of 3 to 6 feet, occasionally higher, and hover for 8 to 15 seconds. At the end they flutter down to the ground close to where they started. They may repeat this maneuver as many as five times. During the hovering flight they produce a soft, sibilant sound. The hovering behavior may be a part of courtship in that it attracts females. The display also attracts males so that a small aggregation of several males and a female may gather on the bare ground beneath the hovering male."

Capinera, pp. 88-89, plate 13. (1)

Capinera, pp. 65-66, plates 42, 43 (3)

Helfer, p. 115, fig. 191 (4)

Bland, p. 110 (5)

Salsbury, p. 62 (6)

Brimley, p. 24 (7)

Insects of Cedar Creek

Univ. Wyoming