Orthoptera of North Carolina
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View Acrididae Members: NC Records

Melanoplus attenuatus Scudder, 1897 - Slender-bodied Melanoplus

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Taxonomy
Family: Acrididae Subfamily: Melanoplinae Tribe: Melanoplini
Comments: Melanoplus is our largest genus of Orthopterans, with over 350 species occurring in North America (Cigliano et al., 2017). 38 species have been recorded in North Carolina. Rehn and Hebard (1916a) included attenuatus in the Decorus species group, which also include M. decorus and M. nubilus in North Carolina, and M. australis south of our area.
Species Status: The type specimens were collected by Parker-Maynard at Southport (= Smithville), North Carolina (Scudder, 1897)
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: Photographs of specimens are shown on the Orthoptera Species File (Cigliano et al., 2017) at http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1110121 , Google Images,  iNaturalist, GBIFTechnical Description, Adults/Nymphs: Scudder (1897); Rehn and Hebard (1916a); Blatchley (1920)                                                                                  
Comments: A small, short-winged (flightless) grasshopper. Adults are yellowish-green with black markings on the head behind the eye, a black stripe on the sides of the thorax, and black blotches on the dorsal sides of the abdomen. Legs are unmarked. Coloration and pattern are similar to several other species in the Decorus species group (of Rehn and Hebard, 1916a). The black stripe on the sides of the thorax usually end abruptly where the principal sulcus divides the prozona from the metazona, similar to M. nubilus but differing from decorus, where it often continues at least shortly onto the metazona (Rehn and Hebard, 1916a). Eotettix pusillus, which co-occurs with decorus, is another similar species but has an unbroken white crescent behind its eye, often has a broken rather than continuous black stripe on the sides of the thorax, and has yellowish rather than greenish hind tibiae.
Structural Features: Melanoplus attenuatus is most safely distinguished from M. decorus and nubilus by the shape of the expanded end of the male cerci: in both attenuatus and nubilus, this knob is somewhat bifid -- i.e., with a ventral projection at the terminal end -- whereas it is rounded in decorus. Compared to nubilus, the expanded dorsal part of the knob is more rounded, not squared off (Rehn and Hebard, 1916a; Blatchley, 1920). The furcula is less than 1/3 as long as the supra-anal plate in nublilus and attenuatus but longer in decorus, whose fingers are also more divergent. The subgenital plate in both nubilus and attenuatus has a submarginal tubercle, whereas in decorus, a tubercle is located at the apex of this plate. (Rehn and Hebard, 1916a; Blatchley, 1920). Eotettix pusillus is also easily distinguished from decorus by its sub-conical cerci and by the shape of its fore-wings, which are nearly circular rather than oval.
Structural photos
Nymphal Stages and Development: Not described
Distribution in North Carolina
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Adult Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

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Habitats and Life History
Habitats: The habitat at the type locality is not given but is likely to be coastal evergreen scrub. Rehn and Hebard (1916a) also report finding it on a barrier island (Sullivan Island) in South Carolina, where it was found in "somewhat marshy, sandy ground covered with low vegetation". At two other locations in the vicinity of Charleston, they found it in "pine woods in the low heavy undergrowth of plants and scrub oaks less than a foot in height" and in "a depression overgrown with tall grasses in long-leaf pine woods". Further inland near Augusta, Georgia, they found it in similar longleaf habitats, "in short grasses in a somewhat swampy spot". Specimens collected by S. Hall at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, were found in boggy sandhill seeps very similar to those found at Fort Bragg.
Diet: Found in low shrubs as well as grassy areas and may feed on the foliage of a variety of forbs, grasses, and shrubs
Observation Methods: Adults are diurnal; they appeared to be fairly common at Fort Jackson in the Fall-line Sandhills of South Carolina (Hall, pers. obs.).
Abundance/Frequency:
Adult Phenology: The three males collected by Parker-Maynard were all caught on November 22 (year not given by Scudder) (Scudder, 1897). Adults collected by Hall in South Carolina were found on August 9, 1993.
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status: SR
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: G2G3 SH
State Protection: Listed as Significantly Rare in North Carolina by the Natural Heritage Program. It has no legal protection, however, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands.
Comments: This species has apparently not been recorded in North Carolina since the type specimens were collected in the 1890s. Although the immediate vicinity of Southport has not been searched, extensive grasshopper collections were made by Hall in both the Boiling Spring Lakes Wetland Complex just a short way inland from Southport and at the Green Swamp and other likely habitats in Brunswick and Columbus Counties. All specimens belonging to the Decorus species group were Melanoplus nubilus. If this species is not extirpated from the state, it probably shares the same conservation status as the other members of this species group, with the same management recommendations.