two-striped grasshopper

Two-striped grasshopper is a large, very common and widespread, long-winged, spur-throated, short-horned grasshopper. It is highly variable in appearance but a few distinctive features, and its near ubiquity, make it relatively easy to identify.

The overall coloration is usually yellowish-green to brown, rarely light green, with dark markings. The female is larger than the male.

The face is vertical. The top of the head (vertex) is rounded in profile. The antennae are yellowish-brown to brown and are no more than ½ the length of the body.

The plate covering the upper side of the thorax (pronotum) is flat above, not keeled, and broadly rounded at the end (posteriorly). It does not project over the abdomen. The upper side and upper lateral portions are blackish or brownish. A pair of yellow horizontal stripes extend from the above the compound eyes, over the head, and across the top of the lateral lobe of the pronotum, ending abruptly at the hindmost ridge (principle sulcus). There is a distinct, spiny bump (spur) at the base of the neck, between the base of the forelegs.

There is a pair of flat, round, hearing organs (tympani) on the sides of the first abdominal segment. The lower end plate beneath the genitalia (the subgenital plate) is bulbous. On the male, the top edge of the subgenital plate abruptly curves upward. The sensory appendages at the end of the abdomen (cerci) are roughly boot shaped. On the female the ovipositor is short.

The wings are long, brown or blackish, and well developed. They extend to the tip or almost to the tip of the abdomen when at rest. The forewings (tegmina) are dark and are not spotted. They have a pair of yellow, horizontal stripes that appear as a continuation of the stripes on the pronotum and head. The stripes converge at the end of the tegmina forming a triangle. The hindwings are clear, not banded or patterned, and are roughened on the upper surface.

On the hind pair of legs, the outer face of the robust, third segment (femur) is dark on the upper half, dull yellow on the lower half. It is not banded. The dark and yellow regions are sharply demarcated. On all of the legs, the end section corresponding to the foot (tarsus) is divided into three segments and is arched in the middle. The hind tibia may be yellowish, greenish, or dark. They are never red. They have an outer row of 15 or more spines. The spines, at least at the tip, are black.

The description above refers M. b. bivittatus, the interior west subspecies. On M. b. femoratus, the eastern and west coast subspecies, the overall coloration is often green. The hind femur is not sharply bicolored and may have a herringbone pattern. The hind tibia are always red.

Male: 1⅛″ to 13 ⁄16″

Female: 17 ⁄16″ to 23 ⁄16″

Upland fields, wood margins, marshes.

Later June to early October

They produce a low buzzing sound by rubbing the roughened hindwings against the hardened forewings.

The female deposits a clutch of 50 to 108 eggs in the soil at the base of a plant. The eggs overwinter and hatch in the early spring.

Shoots and other easily digested parts of the same plants that adults feed on.

A wide variety of mostly forbs but also grasses.

Sources

7, 19, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Orthoptera Species File

Hebard, Morgan. (1932). The Orthoptera of Minnesota. University of Minnesota. Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station. Retrieved from the University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/204015.

Melanoplus bivittatus femoratus, the eastern and west coast subspecies, and M. b. bivittatus, the interior west subspecies, both occur in the state. Where the subspecies come in contact they often intergrade but in most areas one subspecies displaces the other.

Very common and very widespread across North America. Common throughout Minnesota.

grasshopper on marigold

Female. She is chewing on Elderberry leaves.

Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus)
Andree Reno Sanborn

Two-striped Grasshopper
AudubonGuides

Two-striped Grasshopper (Acrididae: Melanoplus bivittatus) Preparing to Oviposit
Carl Barrentine

Two-striped Grasshopper (Acrididae: Melanoplus bivittatus) Mating
Carl Barrentine

Two-striped Grasshopper (Acrididae: Melanoplus bivittatus) Female
Carl Barrentine

Luciearl
8/24/2024

Location: Fairview Twp.

grasshopper on marigold

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Lake Shore

Location: Hayes Lake State Park

Location: Cass County

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Pennington Co.

Female. She is chewing on Elderberry leaves.