Montana Field Guide

The following is taken from Helfer (1971), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Otte (1984), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Richman et al. (1993), Brust et al. (2008), and Scott (2010). This species almost always has a black band crossing the lateral side of the face below the eye from the thorax to the front, and a short black band above the antennal sockets (these features separate it from T. fontanus). Two to three distinct crossbands occur on the tegmina (forewings) and rarely cross the dorsal surface, which is distinctly lighter than the lateral surface. The disk of the hindwings is yellow, pale yellow, or greenish yellow with a narrow, faded black band and fairly long spur. The outer face of the hind femur is marked with 2 dark angular crossbands and dark apex. The inner face is pale with 3 black crossbands at the median area and knee. The hind tibia can be blue, gray, yellowish gray with a black marking at its base, it is never red.

Communicative behavior/Crepitation*
Solitary males crepitate emitting one to several bursts of irregular duration. They circle over a general area, flying up to 50 feet before landing. Females do not crepitate. During courtship, males employ both silent femur-shaking and stridulation*. Sometimes only femur-tipping occurs, but is the display used in male-to-male aggressive encounters (Otte 1970, and Vickery and Kevan 1985).

*Crepitation is the sound produced by grasshoppers making a clicking or snapping noise with their wings when in flight, during courtship, territorial encounters or being disturbed.

*Stridulation is rubbing one body part against another, usually the hind femur against the forewing in the case of the Band-winged Grasshoppers. This is often used for attracting a female during courtship (Otte 1970).

This species overwinters in the egg stage. Nymphs appear in June. Adults occur by the third week of July to early September, being most abundant in August (Otte 1984, and Vickery and Kevan 1985).

The following comes from Helfer (1971), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Otte (1984), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Richman et al. (1993), Brust et al. (2008), and Scott (2010). The body length to end of forewings for males is 21-28 mm, for females 28-36 mm.

The Masked Grasshopper can be confused with almost any other Trimerotropis species, especially Pallid-winged Grasshopper (T. pallidipennis). Always compare characteristics with other species described in this Field Guide and even refer to other sources listed in the References section.

The Masked Grasshopper inhabits bare patches of ground of foothills grasslands with open pine woodlands and small clearings from 6,000 to 10,000 feet elevation, on volcanic sand, gravel, and rocky soils with sparse vegetation. This is primarily a montane species (Otte 1970, Capinera and Sechrist 1982).

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