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Photo#591999
Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - female
Copyright © 2011 Roy Cohutta Brown

Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - Female
Whitepath Road area, Gilmer County, Georgia, USA
October 18, 2011
Size: not recorded
Melanoplus walshii - Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper: This ID based mostly on information in BugGuide, MississippiEntomologicalMuseum.org, and process of elimination.

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Located in an edge area of a mostly deciduous forest. Furthermore, the area was overgrown with bushes. A "thicket of shrubbery" would also describe this forest edge area. More generally, this was in north Georgia mountains at 1600' elevation. It was still warm, with no frost, during this week at this elevation.

I do not think range would fit M. nigrescens or M. querneus, because this area, where this individual was located, is not at all close to the coast (this location (34.76666, -84.44133) or (+34° 46' 4.73", -84° 26' 28.26") is ~16-18 miles due S-SW of the northern border of Georgia with Tennessee and North Carolina).

Fairly similar to images of Melanoplus walshii - Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper:

Images of this individual: tag all
Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - female Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - female Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - female Walsh's Short-wing Grasshopper - Melanoplus walshii - female
Contributed by Roy Cohutta Brown on 3 November, 2011 - 1:05pm
Last updated 3 November, 2011 - 4:18pm

I think you are correct, and we'll call her M. walshii
at least until proven otherwise. I do think M. nigrescens may still be a possibility, but location does probably rule it out. The females are especially similar; except, M. nigrescens runs a bit larger, wings usually a little longer, with some minor differences in other proportions. I'm not sure if they occur in the same areas (I'm not even totally sure they are actually different species - it would be interesting to follow things like this from the coast up into the mountains and on westward).

Moved from ID Request.
… David J. Ferguson, 3 November, 2011 - 3:42pm

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