Montana Field Guide

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), and Scott (2010). A large, long-winged grasshopper with sword-shaped (ensiform) antennae. Its face is strongly slanted. Generally, the body color is pale brown or yellowish gray. A dark brown to blackish stripe extends from the back of the eye, across the lateral lobe of the pronotum and onto the forewings (tegmina). The long hind tibia is reddish.

Overwinters in the egg stage. Nymphs appear in mid-June, adults are found from mid-July into September and sometimes to early October, depending upon weather conditions (Brust et al. 2008, Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Capineral et al. 2004, Otte 1984, Pfadt 2002, Scott 2010, and Vickery and Kevan 1985).

The body length to the end of the forewings is 28 mm to 38 mm for males, and 39 mm to 51 mm for females. There is a white or ivory stripe below the black stripe on the forewings. Spines on the hind tibia are tipped with black (Hebard 1928, Brooks 1958, Helfer 1971, Otte 1981, Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Vickery and Kevan 1985, McDaniel 1987, Pfadt 2002, Capinera et al. 2004, and Scott 2010).

Could be confused with the Short-winged Toothpick Grasshopper (Pseudopomala brachyptera), which is smaller with short wings. In the west, there are 2 other species of Mermiria, M. picta (in the Dakotas and Wyoming) and M. texana (from Colorado southward to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas (Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Capinera et al. 2004, Otte 1984, Pfadt 2002, and Scott 2010).

Favors grasslands with stands of tall, lush grasses. In Montana, this species is commonly found in mixedgrass, shortgrass and bunchgrass prairies where small stands of tall grasses occur (Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Capinera et al. 2004, Otte 1984, Pfadt 2002, Vickery and Kevan 1985).

The Two-striped Mermiria Grasshopper is an exclusive grass feeder of at least 18 different species, preferring Needle-and-Thread (Stipa comata), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), oats, quackgrass (Elymus repens), Johnson Grass (Sorghum halepense), prairie sandreed (Calamovilfa longifolia), bluestem, western wheatgrass (Elymus smithii), brome, sand dropseed (Sporobolus cryptandrus), and gramma grasses (Capinera and Sechrist 1982, Pfadt 2002).

The following comes from Capinera and Sechrist (1982), and Pfadt (2002). Courting males upon approaching females stridulate (“sings”) with a burst of two to five strokes of his femora. There is no information relative to mounting and copulation nor how soon females mate and lay eggs. Females oviposit in bare soil, laying the eggs at depths of one and a quarter to one and three-quarters below the surface. The egg mass consists of 14 to 18 eggs held together by a froth rather than a pod, but is protected by a froth plug at the top. The hatching nymphs pass through 5 instars before reaching the adult stage.