Migratory Grasshopper

The Migratory Grasshopper carries a reputation built in the Great Plains, where Migratory Grasshopper populations have historically erupted to densities measured in millions per square mile, stripped cropland to stubble, and moved in loose swarms across multiple states. The species name sanguinipes means "bloody foot", a reference to the reddish coloring that some populations carry on the hind legs, though the "bloody" descriptor feels more appropriate for the economic damage the species inflicts on western rangeland than for the modest leg coloring that inspired the Latin. North Louisiana sits at the southeastern fringe of the species' primary outbreak zone, and the biblical-scale swarms that characterize Plains outbreaks don't replicate here. But the species lives across all 26 parishes, feeds on the same crops that matter to North Louisiana agriculture, and brings a flight-dispersal ability that earns the "migratory" common name even when the populations stay moderate. The grasshopper that ate the Great Plains moved to Louisiana and settled for a smaller appetite, but the restless wings stayed the same. Adults measure 19 to 30 millimeters, medium-sized, overlapping the size range of the Red-Legged Grasshopper and the smaller end of the Differential. The body color varies from brownish-yellow to greenish-brown, with darker markings on the forewings and a pale stripe along the dorsal midline that may or may not show clearly depending on how much the individual feels like cooperating with your identification attempt. The hind tibiae range from blue to reddish, which creates the kind of identification headache that makes entomologists pour a second cup of coffee. The body profile runs more slender than the Red-Legged Grasshopper, with a narrower thorax and a more streamlined abdomen shaped by the aerodynamic demands of the extended flights the species performs. The wings extend noticeably past the abdomen tip, a proportion visible in the field when the grasshopper perches on vegetation with the wings folded along the body. The wing tips projecting past the abdomen create a distinctive "long-tailed" silhouette that experienced observers use to separate the Migratory Grasshopper from the shorter-winged Red-Legged at resting distances of three to five feet. The pronotal ridge (the raised crest along the top of the pronotum) runs lower and less distinct than in the Differential, and the pronotum carries a shallow groove that cuts across the surface at roughly the midpoint. The groove position and depth help separate Melanoplus species under a microscope, but nobody in a hayfield with a sweaty hand and a half-caught grasshopper measures pronotal grooves. The feature exists for the person who brought a 20x hand lens and a jar to the pasture, which describes approximately seven people in the state of Louisiana. The Drought Ecology The Migratory Grasshopper's relationship with drought differs from the Olive-Green Grasshopper's drought-driven migration into irrigated landscapes. Where the Olive-Green Grasshopper moves from dying wild shrubs into irrigated ornamental plantings, the Migratory Grasshopper performs the same movement across a wider range of habitats and at greater distances. The Migratory Grasshopper's longer flight range means the species draws from a larger source area during drought dispersal, a dry spell that affects a 50-mile radius around a North Louisiana town pushes Migratory Grasshoppers from every direction toward the irrigated fields and maintained landscapes at the center. The drought dispersal creates a paradox for management. The grasshoppers arriving at an irrigated field during a drought originated from habitats spread across multiple properties, multiple parishes, and multiple management jurisdictions. No single landowner can treat the source population because the source extends beyond any single owner's boundaries. The only effective management treats the receiving field, the irrigated crop that attracted the immigrants, through barrier treatments along the field margins or bait applications in the turn rows where the arriving grasshoppers concentrate. The Migratory Grasshopper's drought sensitivity turns the species into an accidental rain gauge. Years when Migratory Grasshoppers pile up in irrigated fields and suburban landscapes correspond to the dry summers that drove the dispersal in the first place. Wet summers spread the grasshoppers across all the available green vegetation so evenly that nobody notices any concentration. Dry summers push them all into the irrigated patches where people live and farm. Same total number of grasshoppers. Completely different visibility. The drought doesn't make more grasshoppers. The drought makes the same grasshoppers impossible to ignore. The Dispersal Habit The "migratory" label references the species' tendency to make local and regional dispersal flights that redistribute populations across the landscape. Unlike the desert locust or the extinct Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus), the Migratory Grasshopper doesn't form coherent swarms that move as organized masses. Instead, individual adults and loose groups make extended flights, sometimes measured in miles, that carry them from depleted food sources to fresh vegetation, from drought-stressed areas to irrigated fields, and from one parish to the next during dry summers. The Rocky Mountain locust connection deserves mention because the Migratory Grasshopper carries the closest living genetic relationship to the most destructive agricultural pest in North American history. The Rocky Mountain locust, the species that darkened skies across the Great Plains in swarms estimated at trillions of individuals during the 1870s, went extinct around 1902, and genetic analysis suggests the Migratory Grasshopper ranks as the closest surviving relative. The Migratory Grasshopper may descend directly from non-swarming populations of the Rocky Mountain locust that persisted after the swarming populations collapsed, a theory that would make Migratory Grasshopper the surviving, better-behaved version of North America's most famous insect disaster. The extinction of M. spretus left Migratory Grasshopper as the primary rangeland grasshopper pest across North America, a role the Migratory Grasshopper fills with considerably less drama than the cousin who preceded them. The dispersal flights in North Louisiana manifest as sudden appearances of Migratory Grasshoppers in areas that showed no populations the previous week. A cotton field in Morehouse Parish that had minimal grasshopper pressure through June may suddenly harbor noticeable numbers in July after a dispersal event from dried-out rangeland 10 miles to the west. The arrivals weren't raised in the cotton field, they flew in from elsewhere, attracted by the green, irrigated crop standing against a brown, drought-stressed background. The flight mechanics explain how a medium-sized grasshopper covers miles of ground. The Migratory Grasshopper's forewings extend past the abdomen tip, proportionally longer than in the Red-Legged Grasshopper and most other Melanoplus species of similar body size. The extended wing area provides more lift per wingbeat, allowing sustained flights that exceed the short escape hops of the shorter-winged species. A Migratory Grasshopper launching from a dried-out pasture in Claiborne Parish during a July drought gains altitude quickly, catches the prevailing wind, and rides the airflow at 5 to 15 feet above ground level across fields, roads, and property lines until the flight muscles fatigue or the grasshopper spots green vegetation below. The landing decision follows the simple rule of all dispersing herbivores: go until you find food, then stop. Navigation by stomach. The original Yelp review: "green, would eat again." The green-detection mechanism likely operates through contrast sensitivity in the compound eyes, which register the difference between the brown, dried landscape below and the green, irrigated patch ahead. The contrast trigger explains why irrigated fields draw more immigrants than non-irrigated fields of the same crop species during drought, the irrigation creates the green-versus-brown contrast that the flying grasshopper's eyes detect from altitude. The flight altitude during dispersal runs 5 to 15 feet above ground level, high enough to clear the vegetation but low enough for the compound eyes to read the green-versus-brown map of the landscape below. Hot summer afternoons change the equation. Thermal updrafts on a July afternoon can grab a flying Migratory Grasshopper and carry the thing above 100 feet, into airspace shared with migrating dragonflies, dispersing spiders drifting on silk threads, and the occasional honeybee that also didn't plan to be this high. At those altitudes the grasshopper can't see the ground details that guide the landing decision, so the flight extends until the thermal fades and the grasshopper sinks back into the detection zone. These thermal-assisted flights drive the longest-distance dispersal the species manages in North Louisiana, potentially carrying individuals across parish boundaries on a single hot afternoon's free ride. The wind direction shapes the dispersal pattern across the landscape. During the prevailing southwest summer winds that characterize North Louisiana's July-August weather pattern, dispersing Migratory Grasshoppers drift northeast, from the drying uplands toward the river bottomlands and from the pasture parishes toward the agricultural parishes. The drift deposits immigrant grasshoppers on the downwind edge of irrigated fields, creating the sudden "invasion" pattern that farmers recognize as grasshoppers arriving from somewhere else rather than building up locally. A farmer in Madison Parish who sees grasshopper numbers triple in a single week during a drought didn't miss a population buildup, the grasshoppers flew in on the southwest wind from the drying pastures 20 miles to the west. The flight ability combines with the generalist diet to make the Migratory Grasshopper a flexible, opportunistic species that exploits whatever the North Louisiana landscape offers at any given moment. The flexibility shows in the year-to-year variation in where the species appears at highest density. One year, the concentration sits in the Ouachita River bottomland. The next year, the piney hill pastures carry the heaviest populations. The shift follows food availability, moisture patterns, and the stochastic dispersal events that redistribute adults across the regional landscape. Identification and the Melanoplus Challenge Separating the Migratory Grasshopper from the Red-Legged Grasshopper in the field pushes the limits of practical identification for casual observers. Both species occupy similar habitats, eat similar food, measure similar sizes, and wear similar colors. The Migratory Grasshopper tends toward a more slender body profile, carries slightly longer wings relative to body length (longer wings for longer flights), and shows less consistent red coloring on the tibiae. The tibiae range from blue to reddish, a broader color range than the consistently red tibiae of the Red-Legged Grasshopper. The blue-tibiae form of the Migratory Grasshopper provides one of the few reliable visual separation cues in the field. A medium-sized brownish Melanoplus with blue hind tibiae belongs to the Migratory Grasshopper rather than the Red-Legged, the Red-Legged Grasshopper doesn't show blue tibiae in any population. The catch: not all Migratory Grasshoppers show blue tibiae. Some individuals carry reddish tibiae that overlap the Red-Legged's color range completely. The blue-tibiae form confirms Migratory, but the red-tibiae form doesn't confirm Red-Legged. Definitive separation often needs examination of the male cerci (the paired appendages at the abdomen tip), which differ in shape between the two species, a feature that demands either a collected specimen or a very cooperative grasshopper willing to hold still for a close-up photograph. The cerci of the Migratory Grasshopper curve upward at the tips with a distinctive boot-shaped notch near the midpoint, while the Red-Legged Grasshopper's cerci taper more uniformly. The difference shows clearly under magnification but stays invisible at normal field viewing distances. The wing venation pattern gives one more separation feature for people who collect specimens and own microscopes. The Migratory Grasshopper's hindwing carries a subtly different branching pattern in the medial and cubital veins than the Red-Legged's, a difference that shows up on spread, pinned wings under magnification and absolutely nowhere else. The venation matters taxonomically because wing vein patterns evolve slowly, meaning the two species diverged long enough ago to develop detectably different wing architecture while converging on nearly identical everything-you-can-see-in-the-field appearance. Evolution built two different grasshoppers and then dressed them in the same outfit. The practical field approach: blue tibiae means Migratory, confirmed, done. Red tibiae means "probably Red-Legged, possibly Migratory, good luck." Accept the overlap. The ecological stories run so parallel that misidentifying one as the other changes nothing about the biology of what you just watched. Diet and Crop Impact Migratory Grasshoppers eat the same everything-on-the-menu diet as the Red-Legged and Differential Grasshoppers. Grasses, broadleaf weeds, crops, garden vegetables, if a plant grew it and a mandible can reach it, the Migratory Grasshopper ate it. Small grains, alfalfa, soybeans, cotton, corn, and garden vegetables all made the list, which reads less like a diet and more like an inventory of North Louisiana agriculture. The damage follows the same edge pattern as every other generalist grasshopper: heaviest along field margins, lighter toward the interior, worst during the late-summer peak when every adult in the parish decides to eat at the same time. Each grasshopper eats more on hot days. A Migratory Grasshopper operating at peak body temperature (35 to 38 degrees Celsius) during a hot August afternoon consumes roughly 50 percent more plant material per hour than the same individual at a cooler morning temperature of 25 degrees Celsius. The temperature-driven feeding rate means the hottest days cause the heaviest crop damage per grasshopper, compounding the drought association: the dry conditions that push grasshoppers into irrigated fields also bring the high temperatures that maximize each grasshopper's feeding rate once the flight deposits them on the green crop. The mandible morphology of the Migratory Grasshopper favors grasses over tough broadleaf tissue. The incisors (cutting edges of the mandibles) run sharper and more blade-like than in the Differential Grasshopper, slicing grass leaves cleanly rather than tearing them. The cleaner cut leaves a diagnostic feeding signature on grass blades: a straight, angled edge at the point where the mandible severed the leaf, distinct from the ragged, torn edges that the Differential Grasshopper's broader mandibles leave. The difference matters to nobody except the entomologist trying to determine which species caused the damage in a mixed-species grasshopper infestation, and even then the distinction sits at the edge of practical field utility. The Migratory Grasshopper's economic significance in North Louisiana sits below the levels seen in the Great Plains, where outbreak densities create genuine agricultural emergencies. The Gulf South climate creates higher humidity, more rainfall, and more abundant fungal pathogens that suppress grasshopper populations before they reach the extraordinary densities that Plains environments allow. In Montana or Wyoming, Migratory Grasshopper populations during outbreak years can exceed 50 to 100 individuals per square yard, densities that strip rangeland to bare soil and threaten crop production across entire counties. North Louisiana's Migratory Grasshopper populations contribute to the general grasshopper lineup damage during hot, dry years but rarely dominate the damage picture the way they do in the western states. The difference comes down to humidity and fungi. North Louisiana's warm, humid summers feed the grasshopper-killing fungi (Entomophaga grylli, Beauveria bassiana) that knock populations down before the exponential growth phase runs long enough to reach western-style apocalypse. The fungi need 80 percent humidity to germinate and grow, and they get that humidity almost every night in a North Louisiana summer, even during drought years when the daytime air feels dry. The overnight dew, the morning fog in the bottomlands, and the persistent humidity that makes August in Ruston feel like breathing through a warm sponge all feed the fungi and suppress the grasshoppers. The Great Plains never gives the fungi that kind of moisture advantage, and the grasshoppers there run wild. North Louisiana's grasshoppers live with a fungal ceiling over their population that the western populations never face. Life Cycle in North Louisiana The single-generation life cycle follows the standard Melanoplus playbook: eggs sleep in the dirt all winter, nymphs crawl out in spring, adults eat everything in sight all summer, females stuff the soil with eggs in fall, and the first hard freeze closes the curtain. Eggs sit dormant in pod-like oothecae at one to two inches depth, hatching in April through May as soil temperatures warm. The nymphs develop through five to six instars over roughly 45 to 60 days, reaching adulthood by late June through August. The Migratory Grasshopper grows up faster than most of the Melanoplus species sharing the same fields. The speed traces back to the species' Great Plains roots, where the short growing season forced everything to hurry up or freeze. That urgency stuck. In North Louisiana's long, lazy growing season, the Migratory Grasshopper still develops like something's chasing it, putting adults on the landscape while the Red-Legged Grasshopper nymphs that hatched the same week still fumble through their final instars. The Migratory adults start dispersing across the parish in late June while the competition still hasn't grown wings. Head start earned by genetics. Head start wasted on a grasshopper that didn't need one in Louisiana's climate, but can't turn off the hurry. The Migratory Grasshopper runs hotter than most of its North Louisiana Melanoplus cousins. Peak metabolic efficiency kicks in at 95 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, a body temperature that would send the Red-Legged Grasshopper looking for shade. The July and August heat that slows down the competition puts the Migratory Grasshopper into overdrive. While the other species reduce feeding to conserve moisture during the worst of summer, the Migratory Grasshopper eats faster, flies farther, and reproduces more efficiently at temperatures that feel like standing on hot asphalt, which, in a North Louisiana parking lot in August, describes the actual situation. The heat tolerance explains why the worst crop damage from this species hits during the hottest, driest weather, exactly when the grasshopper operates at maximum performance and the crops operate at maximum stress. The species potentially runs two generations in the long growing season of the Deep South, though direct evidence for consistent two-generation cycling in Louisiana populations remains limited. The possibility exists because the warm-season window (April through November in most years) provides enough degree-days for two complete nymph-to-adult development cycles. If the first generation reaches adulthood by late June and deposits eggs immediately, the second generation could hatch in July, develop through August and September, and reach adulthood by October, tight but feasible in the extended Louisiana growing season. Courtship and Mating The Migratory Grasshopper's courtship runs closer to the Red-Legged Grasshopper's "walk up and try your luck" approach than to the Admirable Grasshopper's multi-channel variety show. Males spot females visually, approach from a few body lengths, buzz the hind leg against the forewing a couple of times, and go for the mount. The whole sequence from first glance to mounting attempt may wrap up in under 30 seconds. Speed over style. The brevity reduces the time spent sitting exposed to predators during the vulnerable, distracted moments of courtship. The mating system packs a detail that most North Louisiana Melanoplus species skip: the spermatophore. The male deposits a packet containing both sperm and nutritional secretions during mating, and the female absorbs the full package, sperm for fertilization and food for energy. The male literally feeds the female during mating, subsidizing her egg production with a protein-and-nutrient care package delivered at the moment of conception. The dual contribution means the male invests in his offspring twice: once through genetics and once through groceries. Males that pack a bigger, richer spermatophore grow better-nourished eggs and more surviving offspring, which creates pressure on males to invest more in the package. The grasshopper version of bringing flowers to the date, except the flowers get digested and turned into eggs. Females deposit 2 to 4 egg pods in firm, well-drained soil at field margins and road shoulders, the same edge habitats that every Melanoplus species in the 26 parishes gravitates toward. Each pod packs 20 to 30 eggs. Total lifetime output per female runs 40 to 120 eggs, moderate for the genus, well below the Differential Grasshopper's 200-to-400 egg campaign but enough to keep populations ticking at the moderate densities North Louisiana supports. The Migratory Grasshopper doesn't need to outbreed the Differential. The Migratory Grasshopper just needs to outfly everything else, and the wings handle that part. Habitat Across the 26 Parishes The Migratory Grasshopper occupies the same broad habitat categories as the Red-Legged Grasshopper, open areas with mixed vegetation across every parish, but the dispersal tendency distributes the species unevenly across the landscape in any given year. Where the Red-Legged Grasshopper maintains consistently moderate densities across all suitable habitats, the Migratory Grasshopper concentrates in patches that shift with the seasonal and annual pattern of food availability and dispersal dynamics. The agricultural parishes, Morehouse, Richland, Franklin, Tensas, Madison, Concordia, Avoyelles, receive the most consistent Migratory Grasshopper activity because the irrigated crop fields provide the green, food-rich targets that dispersing grasshoppers seek during dry periods. A Tensas Parish cotton field in August, green and irrigated while the surrounding field margins and fencerows brown out in the summer heat, acts like a beacon for dispersing Migratory Grasshoppers that detect the green contrast from altitude during their flight. The grasshoppers descend on the green target, concentrate along the field edges, and begin the feeding that creates the damage reports. The pasture and hay parishes, Bossier, Caddo, Webster, Claiborne, Union, support populations in the managed grasslands where the grazing regime maintains the open, short-vegetation structure the species prefers. The piney hills parishes, Vernon, Natchitoches, Winn, Grant, generate Migratory Grasshopper habitat in the power-line corridors, logging road margins, and forest openings where grass grows in direct sunlight. The bottomland corridors along the Red, Ouachita, and Tensas Rivers create natural dispersal highways. Migratory Grasshoppers moving along the river valleys, following the linear strips of green vegetation that persist along waterways even during drought, traverse multiple parishes in a single dispersal event. A grasshopper that launches from a drying Claiborne Parish pasture and flies south along the Ouachita River corridor may land in a Caldwell or Catahoula Parish field 30 miles downstream. The river corridors concentrate dispersing individuals, creating locally elevated densities along the waterway margins while the upland habitats between rivers show lower and more scattered populations. The Predator Connection Every predator that eats the Red-Legged Grasshopper also eats the Migratory Grasshopper, the two species share identical predator populations because the two species share identical habitats, identical body sizes, and identical escape behaviors. Shrikes, kestrels, mockingbirds, toads, wolf spiders, and fire ants all consume Migratory Grasshoppers without distinguishing between them and the Red-Legged Grasshoppers sharing the same field margin. The parasitoid fly population (Tachinidae) attacks Migratory Grasshoppers with the same efficiency documented for all North Louisiana Melanoplus species. The tachinid parasitism rate, the percentage of adults carrying developing fly larvae, provides a population-monitoring metric that agricultural entomologists use to predict whether a building grasshopper population will crash on its own (high parasitism rate) or continue growing to damaging densities (low parasitism rate). A midsummer survey that finds 25 percent or more of the Migratory Grasshopper adults carrying tachinid parasitoids signals that the parasitoid population caught up with the grasshopper population and will suppress it within one to two generations without human intervention. Robber flies (family Asilidae), the powerful aerial predators that catch insects in flight, prey on Migratory Grasshoppers during the dispersal flights that expose the grasshoppers in open airspace. A large robber fly perched on a fence post along a Morehouse Parish field margin launches at a passing Migratory Grasshopper in flight, catches the grasshopper with spiny legs, and injects digestive enzymes through a piercing proboscis. The robber fly's ambush hunting style targets exactly the long, exposed flights that the Migratory Grasshopper depends on, the long, exposed, cross-landscape flights that no ground-bound predator can reach. The airborne predation adds a mortality cost to the dispersal strategy that partially offsets the food-finding advantage of the long flights. Accessibility No crepitation, no calling song, just the soft wing-whir of flight when flushed. The flight sound runs slightly louder and more sustained than the Red-Legged Grasshopper's short escape whir, but the difference stays too subtle for reliable acoustic separation. All sounds register in the standard human hearing frequency range. Migratory Grasshoppers occupy flat, open terrain, field margins, maintained roadsides, garden borders, park turf. All primary habitats sit on firm, level ground. No rough terrain, no dense vegetation, and no off-trail navigation needed. More Information iNaturalist: inaturalist.org, observation records for Migratory Grasshopper BugGuide: bugguide.net, identification resources for Melanoplus species Orthoptera Species File: orthoptera.speciesfile.org, taxonomy and distribution data Frequently Asked Questions Do Migratory Grasshoppers actually migrate? Not in the organized, long-distance sense that monarch butterflies migrate. "Migratory" references the species' tendency to make local and regional dispersal flights, sometimes covering miles, that redistribute populations from depleted food sources to fresh vegetation. The flights respond to drought and food scarcity rather than seasonal direction. Are they related to the Rocky Mountain Locust? Closely. Genetic analysis suggests the Migratory Grasshopper ranks as the closest surviving relative of the Rocky Mountain Locust, the species that drove the famous sky-darkening swarms of the 1870s before going extinct around 1902. How do I tell a Migratory Grasshopper from a Red-Legged Grasshopper? Blue hind tibiae confirm the Migratory Grasshopper, the Red-Legged never shows blue legs. Red hind tibiae don't confirm either species because some Migratory individuals carry reddish tibiae that overlap the Red-Legged's color range. Do they damage crops in North Louisiana? During hot, dry summers, dispersing Migratory Grasshoppers concentrate in irrigated fields and can cause edge-concentrated damage to cotton, soybeans, and garden vegetables. The damage rarely reaches the emergency levels seen during Great Plains outbreaks. When are they most active? July through September, peaking during the hottest, driest weather when dispersal flights move the grasshoppers from drying habitats into irrigated or naturally moist areas. METADATA Title: Migratory Grasshoppers (Melanoplus sanguinipes) Subtitle: The Restless One That Crops Up Where Nobody Expected Slug: migratory-grasshoppers-north-louisiana Species: Melanoplus sanguinipes Category: Insects Subcategory: Crickets and Grasshoppers Parish Coverage: All 26 parishes Featured Image Alt Text: Migratory Grasshopper perched on crop vegetation showing slender body and variable tibial coloring SEO Focus Keyphrase: Migratory Grasshopper North Louisiana Meta Description: The Migratory Grasshopper disperses across North Louisiana during dry summers, appearing suddenly in fields and gardens across all 26 parishes. Secondary Keywords: Melanoplus sanguinipes Louisiana, migratory grasshopper dispersal, grasshopper crop damage, Melanoplus identification, grasshopper flight

Accessibility

No crepitation, no calling song, just the soft wing-whir of flight when flushed. The flight sound runs slightly louder and more sustained than the Red-Legged Grasshopper's short escape whir, but the difference stays too subtle for reliable acoustic separation. All sounds register in the standard human hearing frequency range.

Migratory Grasshoppers occupy flat, open terrain, field margins, maintained roadsides, garden borders, park turf. All primary habitats sit on firm, level ground. No rough terrain, no dense vegetation, and no off-trail navigation needed.