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

TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Aposematic form

Can you help me ID this grasshopper? - Schistocerca lineata - female yellow grasshopper - Schistocerca lineata - female female Schistocerca lineata - Aposematic form - Schistocerca lineata - female Schistocerca lineata Schistocerca lineata - male Could you kindly identify the katydid and grasshopper species? - Schistocerca lineata - male Schistocerca lineata? - Schistocerca lineata Schistocerca lineata - 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 Cyrtacanthacridinae (Bird Grasshoppers)
Genus Schistocerca (Bird Grasshoppers)
Species lineata (Spotted Bird Grasshopper)
No Taxon Aposematic form
Range
Primarily in south and central Texas, northeastern Mexico, and sporadically north into Oklahoma.
Habitat
Mostly lush deciduous woody growth, particularly on Hop Tree Ptelea trifoliata.
Food
feeds primarily on common hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata, Rutaceae)
Remarks
This striking form has been mentioned a few times in literature as S. lineata or the synonym S. emarginata. Apparently they represent an aposematic population (brightly colored and chemically protected) that feeds primarily on Ptelea trifoliata.
Print References
Sword, G.A. 1998. Host plant use and density-dependent aposematism in Schistocerca (Orthoptera: Acrididae). PhD thesis, University of Texas, Austin, TX.
Sword, G.A. 2002. A role for phenotypic plasticity in the evolution of aposematism. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B (2002) 269: 1639–1644. (Full Text)
Sword, G.A. and Dopman, E.B. 1999 Developmental specialization and geographic structure of host plant use in a polyphagous grasshopper, Schistocerca emarginata (= lineata) (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Oecologia 120: 437–445.