First neighbor -Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus)

Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus) July 5, 2011
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

So, this is the first of my animal neighbors to be found. Aha! I thought, this will be an easy one. It's a grasshopper, but what kind? I am by no means an expert or even mediocre quality entomologist.


Although I can't find any grasshoppers that look like this in National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects and Spiders (National Audubon Society Field Guides), my first guess was that it is a young Pasture Grasshopper (Melanoplus confusus), but it lacks the diagonal eye bar characteristic of the species according to the USDA site. So that's out. With a brown eye that is evenly spotted, my next guess is the Two-striped Grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus). The description fits pretty closely and my photos match the fourth instar photo at the USDA page for the two-striped grasshopper.

The wing-pads appear underdeveloped which confirms that it is not an adult grasshopper, but is at one of the various pre-adult instar stages of development. So, what's an instar? 


What's an Instar?


An instar is one of the stages that grasshoppers go through on the way to adulthood. Each time they molt it is another instar.  So the second molting results in the third instar.

• Click here to see a slideshow of my photos of the Two-striped Grasshopper

In theory, we should be able to tell exactly which instar it is (ie, what stage of development it is in) by noting the development characteristics that are present and its size. This grasshopper was about 1.5-1.8 centimeters in length, and I'd estimate the femur length at about half of that. Those dimensions would be close for the fourth instar of the Two-striped Grasshopper.

The Two-striped Grasshopper Lives in my Yard

So that's my conclusion. This insect was found on the edge of my deck railing near a large grape vine at about 2 in the afternoon on July 5th, 2011, a bright sunny day with temperatures in the 80's. Yesterday, I saw the same insect with about four or five others of the same age and species on the grape leaves. There was no damage to the plant and I did not observe them eating it, although I'm almost positive they will eat some. The plant is too large and vigorous for so few to do any real damage at this point, so they can stay as long as they like for now. I'm pretty tolerant of insects and animals in my yard, but when they start competing with me for food (or they consider me to be food) they get relocated (or worse)... sorry, that's where I draw the line.

Two-striped Grasshopper - front view
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011, all rights reserved

 Grasshopper Photo Notes

Looking into the face of this grasshopper, one can see why they are often used as the inspiration for evil aliens in sci-fi movies. I took these photos using the macro function on my digital camera with autofocus. They were cropped using Paint. They came out pretty good, but I wish the depth of field in the second photo was a little better to keep the back legs in focus. I took a total of six pics at various angles. The two-striped grasshopper shifted nervously as if preparing to leap away as I got close and angled around for the shots, but it stayed put for the photos.