Species Paroxya clavuliger - Olive-green Swamp Grasshopper

Salt Marsh Grasshopper

Hoosier Grasshopper

Probably from Latin clavula- "little club" + Latin ger- "bearer": the phrase "petite massue" ("little club") is used in the key couplet for the species in the original description, apparently referring to the shape of the cerci. Derivation from clavulus-"little nail" or similar words can't be ruled out on linguistic grounds, though.

male: 20-33 mm, female: 29-46 mm

Greenish to greenish-black with dark stripe through eye. Long antennae, especially in males. Hind tibiae are bluish green. Larger than P. atlanticus. In male P. clavuliger antennae are longer than hind femora, while shorter in P. atlanticus.

Distinguished from Melanoplus by longer pronotum and antennae. However, Melanoplus gracilis is very similar, differing primarily in having very short wings. See print references.

Eastern North America; southern Ontario to Maine, and south to the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida.

Usually wet areas with lush herbaceous growth, such as near the edge of ponds and marshes, including salt marshes.

Adults found July-October in northern part of range. Found April-December in Florida. July-frost (North Carolina).

Atlantic Grasshopper, P. atlantica. See also Melanoplus species.

Capinera, Field Guide to Grasshoppers..., pp. 140-141, plate 30 (1)

Capinera, Grasshoppers of Florida, pp. 118-119, plate 93 (2)

Helfer p. 213, fig. 341 (3)

Brimley p. 26 (4)

Giff Beaton

Georgia Coastal Ecosystems

Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Orthoptères, 1839, p.676    Audinet-Serville's original description of the species (in French).