Short-winged Toothpick Grasshopper

July 8, 2016 at 6:21 am (plant-eating insects, singing insects)
Tags: Arphia sulfurea, bunchgrass grasshopper, Diceroprocta vitripennis, green-winged cicada, Hesperotettix viridis, Kankakee Sands, meadow purple-striped grasshopper, mottled sand grasshopper, Pseudopomala brachyptera, Roesel's katydid, Roeseliana roesellii, short-winged toothpick grasshopper, Spharagemon collare, sulfur-winged grasshopper

by Carl Strang

The most fruitful recent singing insects search was at the Kankakee Sands preserve in Kankakee County, which has become one of my favorites for species that affiliate with sand-soil habitats. The June 28 visit yielded 3 county records, two of which were of familiar species, Roesel’s katydid and green-winged cicada.

Grasshoppers were building up their diversity at the site. Sulfur-winged grasshoppers still were going, and the season’s first mottled sand grasshopper also flashed his wings.

This was by far the earliest I have found this sand-soil specialist.

Then in the prairie beyond the savanna I started to hear the zuzz-zuzz-zuzz of stridulating grasshoppers. I had a hard time getting a look at who it might be. Eventually I saw a possible candidate.

This grasshopper has a somewhat slanted face, and color markings reminiscent of stridulating grasshoppers in genus Orphulella.

Study of the photos, however, led to an identification as the meadow purple-striped grasshopper, Hesperotettix viridis, in the non-singing spur-throated grasshopper group. As I waded through the grasses I flushed out a couple really odd grasshoppers that begged to be photographed.

The blade-like antennas, subtle striping pattern, and especially the gangly skinniness of the critter were distinctive.

They reminded me of high school basketball players whose growth spurts have given them impressive height, but whose strength and coordination have some catching up to do. Though I saw and photographed only the minute-winged females, my identification and study convinced me that these were the stridulators. The short-winged toothpick grasshopper is well named, seeming to be constructed of toothpicks. It is a member of the slant-faced stridulating subfamily, and is described as being a frequent singer. The species, also known by the more mundane name of bunchgrass grasshopper (Pseudopomala brachyptera), now is removed from my hypothetical list for my survey region.