Montana Field Guide

The following comes from Brooks (1958), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Capinera et al. (2004), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Pfadt (2002), and Scott (2010). A medium sized dark to yellowish-brown grasshopper with a mottled appearance. The wings reach or extend slightly beyond the abdomen tip. The abdomen is marked with dark and yellow bands. The hind tibia is normally red, tinged with purple, but sometimes greenish.

The following is taken from Capinera et al. (2004), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Pfadt (2002), and Scott (2010). The Gladston's Spur-throat Grasshopper is a late season hatching species compared to other rangeland species. Nymphs occur from mid-June to August, when most other rangeland species are adults, some at the end of their life cycle. Adults are present from August to October, even into November, until freezing temperatures end the adult stage.

Taken from Brooks (1958), Vickery and Kevan (1985), Capinera et al. (2004), Capinera and Sechrist (1982), Pfadt (2002), and Scott (2010). The body length to end of forewings is 17 to 21 mm for males, and for females 19 to 24 mm. Wings (tegmina) are spotted. A dark spotted, ivory line runs down the middle of the wings. Outer face of hind femur is yellow below and has 2 oblique dark bands on the upper half. The femur is also flattened at its base. The cercus of the male genitalia is bent inward at its apical quarter—this feature is diagnostic and unique to this species of Melanoplus.

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

This species inhabits dry uplands among short grasses and weeds on sandy and gravelly soils and is also present in foothills and mountain meadows up to 8500 feet elevation (Capinera et al. 2004, Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Pfadt 2002).

It is a polyphagous species. It seems to prefer forbs, but feed on a diversity of forbs, grasses, sedges, and other foods, such as seeds, fungi, and mosses. Some favored host plants include scarlet globemallow (Sphaeralcea coccinea), Missouri goldenrod (Solidago missouriensis), fringed sage (Artemisia frigida), and Astragalus sp. Favored grasses include blue gramma (Bouteloua gracilis), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis), little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), needle-and-thread (Stipa comata), sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus) (Capinera et al. 2004, Capinera and Sechrist 1982, and Pfadt 2002).

Females begin laying eggs about 21 days after becoming adults. Egg pods are commonly laid in bare clay soil and contain 16 to 29 eggs arranged in two columns. Nymphs pass through 5 instars. The nymphal period averages about 56 days (Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Pfadt 2002).

In the fall, Gladston's Spur-throat Grasshoppers will associate with other late-maturing species and invade fields of winter wheat in the green seedling stage. Such aggregations can cause significant damage to the edge rows of the crop (Pfadt 2002).