by Carl Strang
Over the past couple months there have been large numbers of grasshoppers at Mayslake Forest Preserve, especially around trail and parking lot edges where mowed lawns come up against a variety of unmowed forbs and grasses. My focus in recent weeks has been on singing insects, but with that research checklist essentially complete for the year I decided to look into those grasshoppers. Perhaps I waited too long, as every hopper I got a good look at last week appeared to belong to the same species. I collected a couple of them and, after a session with references and the microscope, settled on an identification.
Red-legged grasshopper, Melanoplus femurrubrum
As I went through the references and keys I was surprised by the number of similar species and the small features that can separate them. Very close ones often segregate by habitat, however, and red-legged grasshoppers are one of the most abundant, weediest species. Ecologists think of weeds as organisms which reproduce in large numbers and occur in disturbed habitats. Therefore, animals as well as plants can be weedy.
While scrutinizing grasshoppers in the field I also got looks at several small (Conocephalus) meadow katydids. All clearly were short-wingeds, except for one.
The oddest feature on this female is the kink in her ovipositor.
She had an abdomen tip colored like that of a straight-lanced meadow katydid, but the shorter ovipositor and leg striping pattern pointed to short-winged meadow katydid, so I am staying with that more conservative identification.
Nature Inquiries 
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