Melanoplus

Melanoplus
Red-legged grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Caelifera
Superfamily:	Acridoidea
Family:	Acrididae
Subfamily:	Melanoplinae
Genus:	Melanoplus Stål, 1873
Species
Many, see text

Melanoplus is a large genus of grasshoppers. They are the typical large grasshoppers (and in some cases migratory "locusts") in North America. A common name is spur-throat grasshoppers (also "spurthroat" or "spur-throated grasshoppers"), but this more typically refers to members of the related subfamily Catantopinae.

The largest grasshoppers of this genus can reach nearly 5 cm (2.0 in) in length, but most are smaller. Some are intricately patterned and colorful, others are drab.

Melanoplus eat grasses of all kinds, as well as leafy and grassy agricultural crops and garden plants. They feed on the leaves, and sometimes fruit, flowers, and buds, as well as tree bark. Many of the more notable agricultural pest grasshoppers belong here, including the Rocky Mountain locust, the most significant insect pest of the 19th century Great Plains, but now extinct.^[1]

Selected species

New species are often being discovered and described in this genus where speciation runs rampant in isolated areas, involving speciation by hybridization.^[2]

• Melanoplus adelogyrus – Volusia grasshopper, St. Johns short-wing grasshopper
• Melanoplus alpinus – alpine grasshopper
• Melanoplus angustipennis – narrow-winged sand grasshopper, narrow-winged spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus bivittatus – two-striped grasshopper
• Melanoplus borealis – northern spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus bowditchi – sagebrush grasshopper
• Melanoplus bruneri – Bruner's spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus confusus – pasture grasshopper
• Melanoplus dawsonii – Dawson's grasshopper
• Melanoplus devastator – devastating grasshopper
• Melanoplus differentialis – differential grasshopper
• Melanoplus femurrubrum – red-legged grasshopper
• Melanoplus foedus – striped sand grasshopper
• Melanoplus gladstoni – Gladston's (spur-throat) grasshopper
• Melanoplus infantilis – little spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus keeleri – Keeler's spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus kennicotti – Kennicott grasshopper
• Melanoplus lakinus – Lakin grasshopper
• Melanoplus ludivinae Fontana, Buzzetti & Marino-Perez, 2011^[3]
• Melanoplus mixes Fontana, Buzzetti & Marino-Perez, 2011^[3]
• Melanoplus oaxacae Fontana, Buzzetti & Marino-Perez, 2011^[3]
• Melanoplus occidentalis – flabellate grasshopper
• Melanoplus packardii – Packard's grasshopper
• Melanoplus punctulatus – pine tree spur-throat grasshopper
• Melanoplus rugglesi – Nevada sage grasshopper
• Melanoplus sanguinipes – migratory grasshopper
• Melanoplus scudderi – Scudder's short-winged grasshopper
• †Melanoplus spretus – Rocky Mountain locust (extinct: 1902)
• Melanoplus stonei – Stone's grasshopper
• Melanoplus viridipes – green-legged grasshopper

• 

  Two-striped grasshopper (Melanoplus bivittatus)

• 

  Differential grasshopper (Melanoplus differentialis)

• 

  Red-legged Grasshopper (Melanoplus femurrubrum)

References

Notes

1. Samways, M.J. & Lockwood, J.A. (1998): Orthoptera conservation: pests and paradoxes. Journal of Insect Conservation 2(3-4): 143–149. doi:10.1023/A:1009652016332 (HTML abstract)
2. Melaoplus, BugGuide
3. Fontana, P., Buzzetti, F.M., & Marino-Perez, R. (2011). New Acrididae from Oaxaca State in Mexico (Orthoptera: Caelifera: Acrididae: Ommatolampinae, Melanoplinae). Zootaxa 2862: 39-55.

Bibliography

• Cranshaw, Whitney (2004): Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09561-2

External links

• Fact Sheets for Assorted North American Grasshoppers
• Distribution maps for many Melanoplus species
• Animal Diversity species accounts for selected species
• Grasshoppers and Their Control, Texas A&M University