Indiana Nature Notes for October

The autumn yellow-winged grasshopper is one of the largest grasshoppers in our area—males are about 1.5 inches long and females are 1.8 inches long. And you’d think that it’d be easy to spot an insect that is about the size of an AA battery! However, the autumn yellow-winged grasshopper is excellently camouflaged for a life on the sand prairie. When at rest, its entire body—from head to tip of the hindwing—is a mix of brown and black mottling, allowing it to blend perfectly with the ground below it and the shadows of the overhanging grasses.

However, when the autumn yellow-winged grasshoppers fly, the jig is up! In flight, the bright yellow or bright orangy-red eye-catching hindwings are exposed. Those hindwings, when extended, are a beacon against the greens of the prairie grasses and the blues of the prairie sky.

It is for one of two reasons that the yellow-winged grasshopper lifts from the earth to the sky—to attract a mate or to escape a predator (and researchers, student interns and over-confident TNC employees!).

To attract a mate, male grasshoppers leap into the air and rake the base of the forewing against the hindwing, making a crackling sound, known as crepitation. After mating, females will lay eggs in the fall which overwinter and hatch in the spring. The eggs hatch and the young grasshoppers grow through the spring and summer, shedding their exoskeleton often on a blade of grass, as they grow in size and strength.

While I knew that most bandwing grasshoppers are strong powerful fliers, I had no idea they could fly so far. I was expecting more of the hop-hop of most small grasshoppers. The ones we were chasing jumped from their hiding places on the ground, into the air, and fluttered off  70-100 feet way! After escaping from us, they would drop to the ground and their excellently camouflaged bodies would disappear in the sandy prairie below.

A variety of different bandwing grasshoppers are found widely across the eastern and central United States, from the east coast of the United States westward through Nebraska. In the Midwest, bandwings are most often found in dry open prairies and meadows with areas of bare open ground. At Kankakee Sands, we readily see and hear several different species of bandwings in the dry sandy soil in the cattle grazing pasture and the bison grazing pasture—both have areas of open sand due to the grazing actions of the herbivores. Good thing bandwings are fast fliers and can avoid being eaten by hungry herbivores devouring the grasses!

It turns out that bandwing grasshoppers can also avoid being captured by 6 humans who spent nearly two hours crashing through the prairie stumbling over grass hummocks, entangled in vines, and laughing at our clumsiness while the grasshoppers gracefully soared away.

A friend later asked me what in the world we were doing out there on the prairie running around in circles, this way and that. My answer was, “admiring the strength and the beauty of the untouchable autumn yellow-winged grasshopper.”

Note: We did eventually catch one grasshopper and indeed, it was verified to be the autumn yellow-winged grasshopper, which was a new county record for this species!