Species Trimerotropis arizonensis - Colorado River Blue-wing Grasshopper

Trimerotropis arizonensis E.R. Tinkham, 1947. Described from 20 miles south of Boulder (Hoover) Dam, near Colorado River, Mojave County Arizona.

Very similar to Trimerotropis cyaneipennis, but with narrower transparent blue-green to blue wings. Hind tibia varies from greenish to blue usually with dark near the top and bottom, plus a pale ring near the top. Pronotum with rear part (metazona) not so much longer than front part (prozona) above and with hind angle usually bluntly obtuse. The "shoulders" of the pronotum are more rounded. Found at lower elevations in much hotter extreme environments. The crepitation produced in flight is a pulsed buzz instead of a crackle made up of short pulses of only two notes (typical in T. cyaneipennis), and the sound is distinctly different.

This species is closely enough similar to T. cyaneipennis to have caused doubts as to it's specific distinction, and authors have questioned it. However, the differences seem great enough to be treated as distinct, and in fact it is quite distinct in points of morphology and behavior. The question deserves more attention.

There is also similarity to T. saxatilis, which it behaves very much like. Wing color and distribution make confusion impossible though.

Near the Colorado River in southern Nevada, extreme western Arizona, and extreme eastern south California. It has been reported from Mojave & Yuma Counties, Arizona; Clark & Lincoln Counties, Nevada (though Lincoln County seems unlikely due to lack of habitat); and San Bernardino County, California.

Dry, hot, sloping, rocky areas (usually associated with fractured rock outcroppings) in sparse Mojave Desert scrub in low elevation broken or mountainous terrain.

Adults are recorded from summer (early August through October). Probably overwinters as eggs.