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
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Genus Aulocara

Big-headed Grasshopper - Aulocara elliotti Big-headed Grasshopper - Aulocara elliotti Aulocara elliotti - female Aulocara elliotti - female Aulocara elliotti - male Aulocara femoratum - female Aulocara elliotti - female Aulocara elliotti - female
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Caelifera (Grasshoppers)
Family Acrididae (Short-horned Grasshoppers)
Subfamily Gomphocerinae (Slant-faced Grasshoppers)
No Taxon (Aulocara Group)
Genus Aulocara
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Aulocara Scudder, 1876. Type species: Aulocara coerulipes S.H. Scudder, 1876 (= Aulocara elliotti)
Oedicara Scudder, 1876. Type species: Oedicara strangulatum S.H. Scudder, 1876 (= Aulocara elliotti)
Coloradella Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893 [synonymy based on original description; no type designated; no species listed]
Drepanopterna Rehn, 1927. Type species: Aulocara femoratum Scudder, 1899
Identification
Large rounded head; long dark antennae; pronotum usually with pale margins on top pinched closer in middle (vaguely "X"-shaped); median carina very low and weak, cut behind middle by principal sulcus; usually with pale stripe down middle of back (especially along top of folded wings); "knees" of hind femora (in adults) in large part dark (usually nearly black); hind tibiae blue.

Closely related similar genera do not show the above combination of characteristics, though they may share some. Similar-looking Spur-throat Grasshoppers have a distinct "spur" between the bases of the front legs below.

Encoptolophus species can look similar, but have a low but distinct median carina on pronotum cut once at or in front of middle; the outer part of yellowish hind wings are clouded dark (wings are tranparent bluish in Aulocara).