Valley Grasshopper

Description:

This grasshopper was pale green with light tan eyes and antennae. There is a thin, light stripe down the center of the thorax. "Stocky, medium-sized Spur-throat Grasshopper with wings short to fully developed. When short wings usually at least as long as pronotum, somewhat pointed apically, and overlapping over back when folded. Overall coloring usually pale whitish or tan, sometimes partly yellowish, with darker brown to black markings. Sulci of pronotum usually dark. Usually with a wide dark mid-dorsal band along top of head and pronotum, often with pale thin line in middle. Dark markings on sides of pronotum and on abdomen variable. Tegnina usually with dark spotting or speckling, veins mostly pale, sometimes with a pale stripe along fold. Outher face of hind femur with striking dark on light heringbone pattern that has an overlying pattern of diagonal dark bars crossing it; inner face with similar pattern less developed and upper side usually with bold dark cross bars; inner and outer faces of "knee" with upper part dark, often almost black. Hind tibiae usually blue. Other related species do not have "shiny" look, are usually less contrastingly patterned, and do not have the same heringbone pattern on the hind femur. They mostly have short tegmina with rounded tips that are well separated." - BugGuide

Habitat:

Unknown garden plant at Stone Gardens. The range is "West of the Rocky Mountains from Idaho, western Utah, and perhaps northwestern Arizona to the Cascades and Coast Ranges, and to the coast in the southern half of California; south into northern Baja California, Mexico." - BugGuide