Darting through grassy landscapes with remarkable flying ability, the Pallid winged Grasshopper reigns as a master of adaptation and survival. Read on to discover some interesting facts about this species, from its ecological significance, unique characteristics, and its fascinating adaptations for survival.
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Acrididae
Genus: Trimerotropis
They have a pale appearance
The pallid winged grasshopper belongs to the Trimerotropis genus. Unlike its colorful counterpart – the rainbow grasshopper, it comes in shades of tan to gray. It has two dark bands on its tegmen, with brown spots near the tips. Its hindwing stands out with a bold black band in the middle, while the rest of the wing can be white or pale yellow, ending in a see-through tip.
The grasshopper has long, skinny hind legs that are black and yellow. Its antennae are shorter than its body. Plus, it has hearing organs on its belly.
The pallid-winged grasshopper is medium-sized, with females being larger than males. Males have a size of about 25-35 mm in length, while females are 30-45 mm long.
Habitat
The pallid winged grasshopper is a real survivor, spreading across the Americas more than any other grasshopper. You can find them from southern Mexico all the way down to South America, even making a brief stop in Hawaii in the 1960s.
They live in various places, from deserts to semi-deserts, liking spots with shrubs, grass, and open ground for sunbathing. It’s fascinating how they can adapt, even thriving in places like weedy city lots.
These grasshoppers are adaptable creatures. Normally, they are found in low areas, but they can also live way up high in the mountains, sometimes even as high as 8,500 feet or more. They’re also able to live in different kinds of weather, from coastal areas like the Pacific and Atlantic to high mountain places.
Pallid winged grasshopper Diet
The pallid winged grasshopper is a plant-eating insect that enjoys eating different types of grasses, shrubs, and other plants. What they eat depends on what’s available and how good it tastes.
When the season starts and the grasses are fresh and green, they munch on annual grasses like dandelions, downy brome, needle grama, and kochia. As these plants dry up, they switch to eating perennial grasses and other green plants like crested milkvetch, wheatgrass, and big sagebrush. Sometimes they even consume parts of other insects, pollen, or fungi.
With their appetizer and ability, these pallid winged grasshoppers are troublemakers for crops and plants, especially in weedy places. They munch on cotton, wheat, and other crops, sometimes stripping entire fields bare. Sometimes, they get drawn to city lights, causing traffic and cleanliness problems.
Their predators include birds, spiders, other insects, and small mammals.
They can fly pretty far
The pallid-winged grasshopper is famous for its incredible flying skills, which help it move across large areas. This ability comes in handy when they need to escape tough conditions like dry vegetation in deserts where they live. These grasshoppers can travel really far, like one time when a whole group made it to Hawaii, probably carried by the wind from North America.
These species can also fly pretty high, about 3,000 feet up in the sky. Sometimes they fly for a long time, disappearing from sight. During the day, they zip around close to the ground, their coloration provides camouflage. But if they feel threatened, they can soar up high, making a clicking sound, and reveal their bright hind wings, which might surprise their predators.
While many of them are sometimes drawn to lights at night, the insects are mainly active during the day.
Life cycle
To attract females, male pallid-winged grasshoppers produce a unique “song” by rubbing their legs together. After mating, females lay eggs in the soil during late summer or fall, with each pod containing around 34 eggs. They can lay several egg pods during their lifetime, waiting for at least 26 days before laying eggs again.
The development of these eggs depends on moisture levels; in dry conditions, eggs may pause their development or perish. These eggs stay in the soil through winter and hatch in early spring, but the exact timing varies depending on the region, occurring from February to April in the south and from late April to May in the north.
The baby pallid winged grasshopper has triangular shapes on their heads. Their main diet is green plants. It takes them about 42 to 48 days to grow up, depending on location and temperature. Throughout this stage, they will have to molt from 5 – 6 times to become adults. As they grow, their color changes from tan with brown spots to bright yellow or olive on their bellies.
These young become adults in spring, around April in states like Arizona and June in areas like Colorado. The lifespan of pallid winged grasshoppers ranges from 14 to 67 days, depending on where they live. Depending on where they live, these insects will have different numbers of generations per year. In the north, there’s usually just one generation, while in the south, there might be two or more because conditions are better.
Reference: uwyo.edu
