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Photo#468250
grasshopper - Melanoplus

grasshopper - Melanoplus
Cross Plains, Dane County, Wisconsin, USA
July 2, 2010
Size: ~9.5mm
Thought I knew what kind of grasshopper this was at first but the eyes are different from what I've seen before.

Images of this individual: tag all
grasshopper - Melanoplus grasshopper - Melanoplus

M. keeleri
In Manitoba at least, this is the only Melanoplus nymph with eyes like this. I have (so far) photographed only one nymph similar to this one, only the dorsum wasn't quite as rusty as this and it wasn't quite as mottled. All other keeleri nymphs I've seen have more contrasting patterns.

A nymph of Melanoplus, and a pretty distinctive one
I need to see if I can match it to a species, but off-hand, I'm not sure which species it is. Published information on identifying nymphs is limited mostly to some more common species, and while this one would probably be very easy to identify, if we had enough information, it's not available. It resembles the nymphs of M. keeleri a lot, but those are sharper and more contrastingly patterned, without a lot of the mottling. It also looks a fair amount like M. dawsoni, but as far as I know, that one never has pale stripes through the eye like this, and usually has a pale stripe right down the middle of the back. There are several other "similar" ones with published photos, but they all have major differences of one sort or another.

Moved from Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids.

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