Chorthippus parallelus

Chorthippus parallelus
male brown form
female green form
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Family:	Acrididae
Subfamily:	Gomphocerinae
Genus:	Chorthippus
Species:	C. parallelus
Binomial name
Chorthippus parallelus (Zetterstedt, 1821)

Chorthippus parallelus, the meadow grasshopper, is a common species of grasshopper found in non-arid grasslands throughout the well vegetated areas of Europe and some adjoining areas of Asia. It is a well-studied organism in the discipline of Evolutionary biology and was an early and important model system for the study of European phylogeography.

Distribution

The range of the Meadow Grasshopper extends from the Atlantic coast of Europe to the Urals. It is found from Scandinavia in the north to southern Spain and Anatolia in the south. It prefers moist vegetation and in southern regions is typically found in river valleys and at altitude (up to approx 2000m), not being found in arid areas.

Female Chorthippus parallelus showing short wing cases of the female.

Physical appearance

Females grow to approximately 2 cm and are larger and less active than males that grow to approximately 1.5 cm. Both sexes are flightless. In females the wing cases (covering vestigial wings) extend only a short way down the abdomen while males have longer wing cases extending to almost the tip of the abdomen. They can be variable in colour with green, brownish, purple-red and pink forms recorded,^[1] although green forms are most common. Colour forms are genetically determined^[2] and some populations can show high frequency of pink grasshoppers.

Chorthippus parallelus is told from similar species by the approximately parallel nature of the bars (pronotal side-keels)^[3] on the back of the neck which gives the species its name.

Geographic races

There are at least five races of the meadow grasshopper described in different regions^[4] with the Greek (C.p.tenuis), Iberian (C.p.erythropus) and central European (C.p.parallelus) forms described as separate subspecies. These subspecies are the result of the allopatric separation of Chorthippus parallelus populations into separate southern European refugia during the Pleistocene ice ages.

The most widespread subspecies, C.p.parallelus, is found throughout much of Europe but is replaced by C.p.erythropus in Iberia. The Iberian erythropus subspecies is characterized in the field by red hind tibiae and differences in the mating song although other studies demonstrate additional differences in morphological, behavioural, chromosomal and DNA sequence characters.^[5] There is a hybrid zone between C.p.erythropus and C.p.parallelus running along the ridge of the Pyrenees mountains between Spain and France. A similar hybrid zone has been described between forms in France an Italy that runs along the Alps.^[6]

Gallery

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  Male - Chorthippus parallelus

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  Male - Chorthippus parallelus

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  Female - Chorthippus parallelus

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  Female - Chorthippus parallelus

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  Female - Chorthippus parallelus showing slight pink coloration

References

1. Pink grasshopper found in marshes, BBC, September 9, 2009
2. Fraser Rowell, C.H. (October 1971). "The Variable Coloration of the Acridoid Grasshoppers". In Beament, J.W.L. Advances in Insect Physiology: v. 8. Academic Press Inc. pp. 145–198. ISBN 0-12-024208-7.
3. Bellmann, Heiko (1988-05-05). Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Crickets of Britain and Northern Europe. Collins. ISBN 0-00-219852-5.
4. Cooper, S J; K M Ibrahim; G M Hewitt (February 1995). "Postglacial expansion and genome subdivision in the European grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus". Molecular Ecology 4 (1): 49–60. doi:10.1111/j.1365-294X.1995.tb00191.x. ISSN 0962-1083. PMID 7711954.
5. Hewitt, GM (July 1996). "Some genetic consequences of ice ages, and their role in divergence and speciation". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 58 (3): 247–276. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.1996.tb01434.x. ISSN 0024-4066.
6. Flanagan, NS; PL Mason; J Gosalvez; GM Hewitt (May 1999). "Chromosomal differentiation through an Alpine hybrid zone in the grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus". Journal of Evolutionary Biology 12 (3): 577–585. doi:10.1046/j.1420-9101.1999.00049.x. ISSN 1010-061X.