Pallid-winged grasshopper

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Pallid-winged grasshopper
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Orthoptera Family: Acrididae Subfamily: Oedipodinae Genus: Trimerotropis Species: T. pallidipennis
Binomial name
Trimerotropis pallidipennis (Burmeister, 1838) [1]

The pallid-winged grasshopper (Trimerotropis pallidipennis) is a common grasshopper of the family Acrididae, native to the deserts of western North America from British Columbia to Argentina ^[2]. They are more active during the summer months, and their pale, mottled coloration makes them hard to see against surfaces such as the granite often found in the gravel of dry river beds ^[3]. They grow to be 37 mm (1½ inches). The behavior of the pallid-winged grasshopper is apparently determined by temperature, with foraging occurring at temperatures of 24–32°C and mating at 30–40°C ^[4].

[edit] Swarming

Populations of the pallid-winged grasshopper occasionally irrupt to damaging numbers. Between 1952 and 1980, there were six outbreaks in Arizona, only one of which lasted more than one year ^[2]. Most recently, in 1998, following a warm and wet monsoon season in the Phoenix metropolitan area and an unusually warm and wet El Niño that affected the west coast of the United States, pallid-winged grasshoppers swarmed the Phoenix metropolitan area. Experts^[who?] following the swarm estimated 20–30 grasshoppers for every square foot of land in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Several business remained closed for several days and the incidence of traffic accidents increased sharply during the time. Early mornings saw the worst problems because the grasshoppers would rest in any area that was not high in traffic. When morning rush hour began, clouds of grasshoppers could be seen in the sky.

[edit] References