Arid Lands Spur-Throat Grasshopper

Smallish (mostly under 1 inch, but sometimes longer in the south). Antennae and eyes are usually brown, often strongly reddish. With very short wings, and the tegmina oval and usually widely separated. The bar behind the eyes on the sides of the pronotum is usually wide at the front, with an included pale spot, but narrows to a slightly up-bowed dark line at the top edges of either side of the mesonotum (rear part of the pronotum). There is usually a distinct (often very narrow, at least toward rear) dark stripe down the middle of the top of the pronotum. The abdomen usually has at least indications of two dark bands (often broken) extending back along either side of the top, and often a second pair of dark lines running just above these. The underside is usually yellowish. Hind tibia are blue, usually with blue or yellow on the lower half of the knee of the femur as well. Hind femur is usually mostly light brownish or yellowish on the outer side (more often grayish west of Arizona). Male with end of abdomen not unusually enlarged; with subgenital plate evenly curved around the top edge; with fuculae well-developed, slender, longer than wide; cerci long and very slender, not pointed, usually bent in and up a bit and often very slightly swollen toward the tip, widening at the base. Tip of male abdomen In the east (roughly east of the Rio Grande), individuals often have a gray appearance, but with much yellow, and with bold narrow black dark markings. But toward the south in west Texas and ne. Mexico they are often stocky, green, and can be beautiful gems highlighted with blue and red. West from the Rio Grande, south from the Mogollon Rim and in sw. New Mexico, they also average stocky and often more colorful (but not all individuals are equally colorful) with richer blues and yellows dominating the body and with reddish eyes (these were named M. desultorius ). In mountains of the Gila drainage they are often boldly patterned with heavy dark markings. On the Colorado Plateaus and into the Southern Rockies, coloration tends to be dull grays and browns, and size is often extremely small ( M. tristis ). In the Great Basin, Mojave and Colorado Deserts they average a bit more slender, and most often light gray with dark markings narrow and less developed; the hind femora are often strongly banded. It seems that they look just a bit different in most any region where they are found.