Montana Field Guide

The following is taken from Brooks (1958), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Pfadt (2002), Capinera et al. (2004), and Scott (2010). Medium sized, with females slightly larger than males. Dorsal color variable, often dark brown or dark grey, sometimes with a reddish tinge. Abdomen color can be tan or bright yellow. A dark stripe extends from the back of the eye to about two-thirds onto the lateral lobe of the pronotum.

Overwinters in egg stage, with the 1st instars appearing during May. They pass through 5 instars, which takes 36 to 42 days to reach the adult stage. Adults occur from early July into October—sometimes to early November (Pfadt 2002) and (Scott 2010).

The following is from Brooks (1958), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Pfadt (2002), Capinera et.al. (2004), and Scott (2010). The body length to end of forewings is 20-24 mm for males, 21-27mm for females. The wings are long and narrow, extending as much as 4 mm beyond the tip of the abdomen. Hind femur is pale yellow with dark markings dorsally on the outer surface. Hind tibia can be red or blue.

Any number of Melanoplus species can be confusing without collecting male specimens for genitalia comparisons to make positive identifications.

Usually confined to areas of sandy soil with stands of tall, mid, and short grasses and a diversity of forbs; as well as old plowed land and heavily grazed pastures (Capinera and Sechrist 1982 and Pfadt 2002).

This grasshopper is polyphagous, feeding on grasses, forbs, shrubs, moss, fungi and dead insects. It has a preference for forbs. Favored native rangeland species include western ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya), sunflowers, wavyleaf thistle (Cirsium undulatum), flatspine stickseed (Lappula occidentalis), white sagebrush (Artemisia ludoviciana), blue gramma (Bouteloua gracilis), western wheatgrass (Elymus smithii), needle-and-thread (Stipa comata), and sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus) (Capinera and Sechrist 1982 and Pfadt 2002).

Egg laying has not been observed in nature. Lab studies, with 8 female caged specimens of this species, indicated that females prefer to lay eggs close to vegetation in sandy soils. They laid a total of 18 pods which consisted of 12 to 17 eggs per pod of those examined. Adult males appear about one week before females. Females reach sexual maturity in about two weeks after fledging to the adult stage. (Pfadt, 2002).