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| Adult male | Adult female |
Common name - Kiowa range grasshopper (Heifer, 1972).
Geographic distribution - Manitoba to British Columbia (Canada) and south to Mexico (Heifer, 1972). In Colorado it can be found throughout the state.
Habitat - sandy blowouts (Mulkern et al., 1969).
Food habits - eats grasses and has a preference for blue grama, sand dropseed, western wheatgrass, quackgrass and Sandberg bluegrass (Anderson and Wright, 1952; Kumar et al., 1976; Mulkern et al., 1964; Mulkern et al., 1969).
Eggs - 16 dark-brown eggs are arranged in two columns. Average egg length, 4.7 mm; average diameter, 1 mm (Onsager and Mulkern, 1963).
Nymph - five instars (Ramsey, 1964).
Adult - very similar to Trachyrhachys aspera. Medium size.
Color is grey to brilliant green. Head and pronotum are gray, brown or
greenish yellow with definite contrasting pale and dark markings. Head
is higher than pronotum. Antennae are slender. Face is vertical; vertex
is rounded. Median carina of pronotum is deeply cut by two sulci. Pronotum
is constricted laterally. Dorsal posterior margin of pronotum is a right
angle. Posterior angle of lateral lobe of pronotum usually is distinctly
acute. Tegmina are long and brown with two distinct dark transverse bands
and a faint indication of a third band. Wings usually are colorless with
dark veins but occasionally with pale yellow basally and with a dark crossband.
Hind femora have high fins, the upper one suddenly decreasing near the
middle of the femora. Outer surface of hind femora is brown with darker
or white markings. Inner surface is black on the basal half, the apical
half usually is yellow with a black band. Hind tibiae usually are blue,
pale or brown basally. Male length, 12 to 20 mm; female, 22 to 25 mm (Ball
et al., 1942).
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| Pronotum (Side view) |
Oviposition - eggs are deposited in bare, compact soil (Onsager, 1963).
Seasonal history - adults are present from early July to mid-October (Newton, et al., 1954).
Abundance and importance - often abundant and can be of economic importance to grasslands (Hantsbarger, 1979; Mulkern et al., 1969).
T. kiowa fact sheet from the Field Guide to
Common Western Grasshoppers
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Previous Species: Trachyrhachys aspera
Biology of Common Colorado Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers of Colorado Contents