Montana Field Guide

The following is taken from Hebard (1928), Brooks (1958), Helfer (1971), Otte (1981), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Vickery and Kevan (1985), McDaniel (1987), Pfadt (2002), Capinera et al. (2004), Brust et al. (2008), and Scott (2010). This is a large, robust, reddish-brown to dark gray grasshopper with three dark conspicuous bands on the forewings (tegmina) and long black antennae. The hind femur bears a single, oblique dark band on the outer face next to a pale ring or annulus. The inner face of the hind femur is blueish-black with a pale ring and black knee. The folded wings are long and extend 6 to 10 mm beyond the abdominal tip. The hind wing disk is yellow with a wide dark band without a spur and the tip is transparent. The hind tibia is red to orange, sometimes with a pale ring at its base.

Communicative behavior/Crepitation*
The Three-banded grasshopper is considered a weak flier, traversing only short distances. Sometimes males crepitate during short, straight flights of 9 to 24 feet at about 12 to 18 inches above the ground, ending with a 90-degree turn fluttering groundward. During courtship, “ordinary” stridulation* occurs, usually with femur-tipping. During aggression encounters, males signal with femur-tipping, femur-shaking, and striking the ground with their hind tibia. Nonreceptive females repel males by hopping away, femur-tipping, holding their tibiae horizontally over the back, and kicking with the hind tibiae (Otte 1970, Vickery and Kevan 1985, Pfadt 2002).

*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 begin to appear in mid to late May. Adults occur from July into mid-October, depending on temperatures (Vickery and Kevan 1985, Capinera et al. 2004, and Scott 2010).

The following comes from Hebard (1928), Brooks (1958), Helfer (1971), Otte (1981), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Vickery and Kevan (1985), McDaniel (1987), Pfadt (2002), Capinera et al. (2004), Brust et. al. (2008), and Scott (2010). The body length of males is 24-37 mm, and for females 36-50 mm. The hind femur length for males is 13.8-15 mm, and females 28-35.5 mm. This species is so strikingly marked it can seldom be confused with any other grasshopper species.

This species inhabits shortgrass and mixed-grass prairies, open grassland-juniper steppe, all with sparse grass and open patches of gravelly soil (Otte 1981, Vickery and Kevan 1985, Pfadt 2002, Capinera et al. 2004).

The Three-banded grasshopper consumes grasses, forbs, sedges, dead and weak insects, plant debris and cow dung. Overall, this species prefers forbs, which can make up as much as 75% of its diet and includes scarlet globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea), Missouri gaura, Pomme-de-prairie (breadroot scurf pea) (Pediomelum esculentum), milkvetch, and pepperweed. Some favored grasses include blue gramma (Bouteloua gracilis), hairy gramma (Bouteloua hirsute), side-oats grama (Bouteloua curtipendula), sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus) and needle-and-thread (Stipa comata) (Pfadt 2002, Brust et al. 2008).

Courting males approach females by stridulating and femur-tipping which often precedes stridulation. No observations have been made of successful courtship or copulation. Females move into grass cover to oviposit through plant litter into the ground. The egg pod is one-inch long and strongly curved and contains 18 to 26 eggs. The eggs are large, tan to reddish-brown, measuring 7.2 to 8.7 mm in length. When the eggs hatch, the nymphal development period is relatively long, ranging from 56 to 62 days. The Three-striped Grasshopper is unusual among the Orthoptera in passing through only 4 instar stages (Otte 1970, Vickery and Kevan 1985, Pfadt 2002).