Species Xanthippus montanus - Sandhills Band-wing Grasshopper

"Montana Band-wing Grashopper" is a common name most often seen in literature, but it is inappropriate, as the insect under consideration here probably does not occur in Montana (it may be in sandhills areas in the east part of the state?), and it is not found in the mountains.

"Sandhills Band-wing Grasshopper" is more appropriate.

This name has a confused history of usage. It has been applied to three different species, depending upon the region and author. In California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho, it has been applied mostly to Cratypedes lateritius or occasionally to less pantherine versions of Xanthippus corallipes, both of which have varied wing colors in those regions.

In southern Canada it has been applied to yellow-winged insects that may be variants of X. corallipes and/or to the sand-inhabiting insect (discussed below) that occurs further south on the Great Plains.

It has also been applied (probably correctly) to insects from ID, CO, UT, & WY that resemble the Great Plains sand-inhabiting insects in coloration (except they can have orange or red wings as well as yellow); however, these insects are actually a regional variant of X. corallipes here called subspecies "affrictus".

On the Colorado Plateaus and Great Plains it has been applied consistently to a distinct yellow-winged sand-loving species that occupies mostly sandhill (stabilized dune) environments. In most literature it has been used in this last sense or in various combinations of the above. Few authors have noticed the discrepancies, probably because they were familiar only with the insects in their particular region of focus.

For the time being the name X. montanus is used only provisionally (and probably incorrectly) here for the Great Plains / Colorado Plateaus sandhill insect, following the most common usage in literature, and approximately that of Orthoptera Species File.

Ironically, this last type of insect does not occur at all in the area from which the name "montanus" was described. The original insect given the name Oedipoda montana was from either southwest Montana or adjacent northeast Idaho near the Continental Divide. It was described as a red-winged insect (the insects here shown are always yellow-winged), and that red-winged insect was almost certainly the similarly colored regional variant of the species X. corallipes found in eastern Idaho today [placed on BugGuide under the name X. corallipes affrictus - for now.] The insects shown here as X. montanus will almost certainly need a new name if (when) this is all verified, but this must await a critical examination of the actual type specimen of the name X. montanus. [The type specimen may turn out to actually be Cratypedes lateritius instead, which if so would create other problems of name priority in that species.] In the mean time the name "montanus" is used here as it is in most (but not all) literature.

The puzzle of the proper name for this insect still needs further work to unravel the confusion with certainty.

30 - 61 mm, larger in south and at low elevations than northward, and females considerably larger than males.

This applies to the insect from the Great Plains and Colorado Plateaus that is called X. montanus in most literature (see discussion above).

From X. corallipes it differs primarily in narrower top of pronotum with margins sharply defined and rear angle averaging more acute; narrower fastigium with sides prominently elevated; hind femora more slender with the lower flange less flaring; and by more irregular and smaller dark spots on tegmina that tend to run together and parallel to it's length. In areas where found together, X. corallipes is generally stockier, often somewhat larger, and has a distinctly pantherine ("leapard-spot") color pattern. This species is usually found on sand (occasionally on other loose mineral soils), while X. corallipes tends to avoid sand in the regions where both occur.

Pardalophora species might be confused too, but all usually have the pronotal crest cut only once and more evenly elevated. P. apiculata has pink wings, usually fewer and larger spots on the tegmina. P. haldemani & saussurei have a pantherine pattern similar to Xanthippus corallipes. Pardalophora often have the inner hind femur darkened (rarely so in X. montanus).

West of the range of X. montanus, X. corallipes may sometimes occur on sand, and may show a similar color pattern, which has added to confusion between the two.

Cratypedes lateritius is quite different and so far as known never occurs with X. montanus, but the two have been confused in literature. They may meet on the Arizona Strip north of the Grand Canyon in Arizona or Utah. In this area C. lateritius would occur higher in elevation, normally in non-sand habitats, and would be much smaller in size.

This applies to the insect from the Great Plains and Colorado Plateaus that is called X. montanus in most literature (see discussion above).

South Dakota and eastern Wyoming southward into northwestern Texas and central New Mexico. West across New Mexico into northern Arizona and north into the Canyonlands portion of Utah and Colorado. Perhaps in northern Chihuahua, but not verified from there yet. Apparently not in the Great Basin, but should be looked for in dune fields of southwestern Utah. Probably not north of Wyoming or South Dakota on the Great Plains, but records for the northern Great Plains are confused and specimens need to be examined closely to determine if this species is actually there or not (it may or may not reach southern Canada on the Plains?). Recorded from the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, but only X. corallipes has been verified from there (some colored rather like X. montanus, but not that species).

Insects recorded as X. montanus from west of the Rockies, and from west of the Great Plains in Wyoming are not the same species, and represent either X. corallipes or C. lateritius.

Sand dunes, mostly semi-stabilized and with permanent perennial vegetation of grasses and forbs. Occasionally on other similarly loose soils or on large sand areas of other types.

Probably mostly grasses.

Overwinter as nearly mature nymphs, with adults appearing in April (sometimes March) and most common in April and May in most areas, usually gone by sometime in June. The species is common in many areas where it is not often collected because of its early adult appearance.