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Fun Facts
Did You Know?
Short-Winged Grasshopper selects habitats that most other North Louisiana grasshoppers reject. Moist meadows, wet ditches, the grassy margins of ponds and bayous, rain-saturated lawns, irrigated pastures, and any grassland where the soil stays damp and the vegetation stays green and dense, these represent prime Short-Winged Grasshopper territory. Find wet grass, find Short-Winged Grasshoppers. Find dry grass, find something else. The moisture preference separates the species from the dry-ground specialists (Carolina Grasshopper, Admirable Grasshopper) and from the generalists (Red-Legged,…
If This Animal Could Talk...
"Watch closely, respect my space, and let my habitat explain the rest of the story."
The Short-Winged Grasshopper lives a quiet, low-profile existence in the damp grassy habitats that most other grasshoppers avoid and most people never look at closely enough to notice a grasshopper the size of a thumbnail. Short-Winged Grasshopper, the species name means "green", measures only 15 to 25 millimeters in adults, making them one of the smallest grasshoppers regularly encountered in North Louisiana. The body color runs bright green to brownish-green, and the forewings barely extend past the abdomen's midpoint in most individuals, giving the species the "short-winged" common name and a functionally flightless lifestyle.
Most people walk right past Short-Winged Grasshoppers without registering them as grasshoppers. A 16-millimeter green insect on a grass stem looks like a leafhopper, a plant bug, or a random green speck. The brain files it under "tiny green whatever" and moves on. The grasshopper shape, enlarged hind legs, pronotum, slant face, only clicks into focus when you get your eyes within a foot of the perched insect and suddenly realize a miniature grasshopper sat right there on the blade the whole time.
A Few More Facts
How they hunt and forage: Short-Winged Grasshoppers eat grass. That's the whole menu. They chew the same stems they perch on, the same leaves they hide behind, the same plants that make up the entire world they live in. The grass-only diet, combined with the small body size and modest population densities, means the species causes no recognizable agricultural or horticultural damage. Nobody calls the extension office about Short-Winged Grasshoppers. Ever. The species operates so far below the radar that the radar doesn't know the species exists. Nobody notices them eating, and the amount each individual consumes falls so far below any damage threshold that the feeding registers as ecologically invisible. The mandibles on a 20-millimeter grasshopper run small. They slice through young, moist grass blades cleanly but can't handle the tough, dried, lignified stems that bigger species chew through like it's nothing. So the Short-Winged Grasshopper goes where the grass stays soft: wet habitats, green growth, tender tissue at the tips and bases of living stems. Moist soil grows soft grass. Dry soil grows tough grass. The jaw size picks the habitat. You live where your teeth can handle the food, and so does the Short-Winged Grasshopper.
Live birth or eggs? no
When young are born: An egg pod deposited in a bayou-margin meadow in Caldwell Parish survives winter in soil that stays damp from the water table just inches below, conditions that a Carolina Grasshopper egg would drown in.Nymphs hatch in spring, April through May in most of the 26 parishes, and start eating the same grasses that their parents ate in the same spot their parents ate them.
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Accessibility
Accessibility
The stridulatory courtship buzz carries only one to two feet, effectively inaudible beyond arm's reach. No flight sound (the wings can't sustain flight), no crepitation, no long-range acoustic signal. The Short-Winged Grasshopper stays silent at any distance beyond arm.s reach.
Short-Winged Grasshoppers occupy moist grass habitats that often border maintained surfaces, pond edges with paved paths, ditch banks along roads, irrigated lawn margins. The adjacent maintained surfaces provide firm, flat access points within earshot (at close range) and within visual range of the habitat. The grass grows on level, soft ground, but observation from adjacent paved or mowed surfaces avoids any need to walk through dense, wet vegetation. More Information
iNaturalist: inaturalist.org, observation records for Short-Winged Grasshopper BugGuide: bugguide.net, identification resources for Gomphocerinae Orthoptera Species File: orthoptera.speciesfile.org, taxonomy and distribution data
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does Short-Winged Grasshopper live in North Louisiana?
Yes. Short-Winged Grasshopper, the species name means "green", measures only 15 to 25 millimeters in adults, making them one of the smallest grasshoppers regularly encountered in North Louisiana. The buzz carries only a few feet, maybe 12 to 18 inches in favorable acoustic conditions, placing the song among the quietest orthopteran signals in the North Louisiana lineup. Short-Winged Grasshopper selects habitats that most other North Louisiana grasshoppers reject.
How do you identify Short-Winged Grasshopper?
Flying costs a fortune in biological currency, and the Short-Winged Grasshopper decided not to pay. Flight muscles eat up 20 to 30 percent of a flying grasshopper's body weight. The wing structures burn through chitin and materials that could build eggs instead. The metabolic cost of actually powering those muscles through sustained flight burns calories that the grasshopper could spend on growing, reproducing, or not dying of disease. Add it all up and flight runs like a luxury car: impressive performance, terrible fuel economy. The Short-Winged Grasshopper abandoned most of that investment. Shorter forewings save material. Smaller flight muscles save weight. The calories and protein that a flying grasshopper burns on wings and muscle go straight into eggs instead. And the hop actually works better than flight in dense grass, because a grasshopper that stays below knee height never enters the airspace where kestrels, shrikes, and robber flies hunt. The hop stays under the radar. The green paint handles the rest.
What does Short-Winged Grasshopper eat?
Diet and the Invisible Herbivore
Short-Winged Grasshoppers eat grass. That's the whole menu. They chew the same stems they perch on, the same leaves they hide behind, the same plants that make up the entire world they live in. The grass-only diet, combined with the small body size and modest population densities, means the species causes no recognizable agricultural or horticultural damage. Nobody calls the extension office about Short-Winged Grasshoppers. Ever. The species operates so far below the radar that the radar doesn't know the species exists.
Nobody notices them eating, and the amount each individual consumes falls so far below any damage threshold that the feeding registers as ecologically invisible.
The mandibles on a 20-millimeter grasshopper run small. They slice through young, moist grass blades cleanly but can't handle the tough, dried, lignified stems that bigger species chew through like it's nothing. So the Short-Winged Grasshopper goes where the grass stays soft: wet habitats, green growth, tender tissue at the tips and bases of living stems. Moist soil grows soft grass. Dry soil grows tough grass. The jaw size picks the habitat. You live where your teeth can handle the food, and so does the Short-Winged Grasshopper.
Is Short-Winged Grasshopper dangerous to people?
No. This species is not dangerous to people when it is observed without handling or disturbance
