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| Green-striped grasshopper (Chortophaga viridifasciata) Photo by Brad Sylvester copyright 2011, all rights reserved |
There’s a line from a Billy Joel song that goes: “Don’t imagine you’re too familiar and I don’t see you anymore.” Many times, however, we do fail to see things that have become too familiar. Before I started my quest to identify every species of animal that lives in my yard, I might see a grasshopper and note that it’s a grasshopper, or think that every bumblebee I see is one of the same group. Probably even the same hive. As I start taking close-up pictures and then using specific traits to identify the species of things I see in my yard, however, I am seeing things I never saw before and realizing just how diverse the animal populations in one small 5.25 acre really are.
I’ve already made entries here for the two-striped grasshopper and the two-spotted bumblebee, so I’ve become a little familiar with their detailed appearance. So when I see a bumblebee I don’t just see another bumblebee. I notice instead that this one has bit of orange on its abdomen and therefore isn’t the same species as the two-spotted bumblebee that I’ve already logged. I didn’t have camera to get good photos of it, but I know now that I have at least two species of bumblebees and the next time I’m out with my camera, I’ll being looking for the specific colors and markings of every bumblebee I see.
Similarly, I was out walking across the lawn when a grasshopper jumped up in front of me. It was green like the two-striped grasshopper I had already recorded, but it had wings which made it a different age than the fourth instar specimen that I had photographed the other day. Wanting a closer look, I carefully grabbed it off the lawn and set it on the patio table. Eye bars! Not only was it a different age, it was a different species. There were not two stripes on its back, there was not a uniform black stripe on its leg. It was definitely not a two-striped grasshopper.
Using the USDA site again, I started picking out grasshoppers from their list for further research. On my seventh try, not bad considering how many there are (and how little I know about them), I found it. It was, without doubt an adult female green-striped grasshopper (Chortophaga viridifasciata). It lives here, the size fits, the distinctive shape and pattern of the pronotum (the plate that covers the top of the thorax extending from the back of the head) matched exactly!
Interestingly, the green-striped grasshopper females are green and the males tend to be brown. Males and females both fly to escape threats, but says the USDA the females can fly 20-60 feet, twice as far as the males.
They prefer wet, grassy areas –including irrigated fields. The USDA says they have been found in red clover and tobacco fields, but it’s not clear if they are damaging the crops or just eating the weed grasses. Either, this grasshopper, which is quite common in the eastern United States, is probably not going to hurt my gardens at all. It definitely prefers Kentucky Bluegrass over Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans.
Quick facts about the green-striped grasshopper (Chortophaga viridifasciata)
Life Cycle: eggs hatch around July, then begin molting through their instar segments beginning in early April and taking about 100 days to reach the fourth instar. They’ll overwinter in the fourth or fifth instar stage. In the spring, perhaps in early April, depending upon the temperature, they re-emerge and begin developing into adults with one or two more molts depending upon what stage they were in when they went dormant for winter. The adults lay eggs in sandy soil which hatch into nymphs and the cycle repeats.
Diet: Grass
Range: From Montana to New Mexico and east to the Atlantic Coast. Southern Canada. Mexico and Central America.
IUCN Redlist Status: Prevalent, not-listed
When are they here: Green-striped grasshoppers stay all year round although the dormant nymphs may be difficult to locate during the winter months. Once they reach adulthood, they may travel some distance before mating and laying eggs.
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