Orthoptera of North Carolina
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View Acrididae Members: NC Records

Melanoplus hubbelli Hebard, 1935 - Hubbell's Green-legged Melanoplus


Female
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. Melanoplus hubbelli is a member of the Viridpes species group (Otte, 2002), which in North Carolina also includes acrophilus, pachycercus, deceptus, cherokee, eurycercus, sylvaticus, and similis.
Species Status: The type locality is Red Hills, Franklin County, Ohio (references in Otte, 2002, to Red Hills, Franklin County, NC appear to be a mistake for the Ohio site).
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: BugGuide, Google Images,  iNaturalist, GBIFTechnical Description, Adults/Nymphs: Hebard (1934); Otte (2002)                                                                                  
Comments: A small, short-winged (flightless) grasshopper. the body is mainly brown or gray dorsally with a wide shining black stripe extending from the back of the eye along the sides of the pronotum; the lower sides of the head and the sides of the pronotum below are whitish-gray to ivory. The fore- and mid-legs are green, as in other members of the viridipes group; the hind femora are pale brownish gray with two brown bands on the upper and outer faces. In the Piedmont, the only other grasshopper that has been recorded with green legs is Dendrotettix australis, which is easily distinguished by the cherry-red color of its hind legs. Several other species in the viridipes group occur in the mountains, however, but hubbelli is distinguished by its longer, broader, and apically-truncated wings as well as by the distinctive shape of the cerci of the males (see below).
Structural Features: According to Hebard (1934), the "male cerci are distinctive, with disto-dorsal portion roundly elevated and the disto-ventral angle produced as a small tooth. The male subgenital plate either entirely lacks an apical tubercle or has a very low bluntly rounded apex."
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)

Click on graph to enlarge
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: The three populations recorded in the Uwharrie Mountains (Hall, 2011) were all found in mesic habitats, including steep, north-facing slopes and mesic terraces along creeks, all under closed-canopy forests. In contrast, Hebard stated that the habitat at the type locality in Ohio was open, second-growth woodlands growing on a xeric south exposure, which was also true of another Ohio locality. Records given by Otte (2002) also include openings and edges of woodlands, old fields, and balds and a population recorded by Dakin and Hays (1970) was associated with blueberry thickets at the summit of Cheaha Mountain. No populations of hubbelli were found in ridgetop habitats in the Uwharries, however, where Melanoplus nigrescens – another flightless species – was routinely recorded.
Diet: All individuals observed in the Uwharries were found in leaf litter on the ground.
Observation Methods: Adults are diurnal and can be detected by listening for their landings in the leaf litter following the jumps they make when disturbed.
Abundance/Frequency: Found in local colonies
Adult Phenology: In the Uwharries, adults were seen only in May, despite continued searches made for them later in the year within similar habitat (or in some cases, at the same sites where previously found)
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status: W3
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: G4 SU
State Protection: Has no legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands
Comments: This species is not as globally restricted as some other members of this species group, occurring from northern Virginia and the Ohio River Valley south to Tennessee and the Southern Appalachians. In North Carolina, historic records exist from the Black Mountains and the Blue Ridge, but recent records are all from the Uwharrie Mountains in the Piedmont, where populations may represent relicts from a wider Pleistocene distribution. Otte (2002), on the other hand, speculates that hubbelli may have spread out widely following deforestation but is now in the process of retreat as the forest closes back in. Currently, too little is known about its distribution within the state, as well as its habitat associations, to be sure about its actual conservation status.

Image Gallery for Melanoplus hubbelli - Hubbell's Green-legged Melanoplus

Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Randolph Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Randolph Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Randolph Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Montgomery Co.
Comment: Male
Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Montgomery Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Stephen Hall
Montgomery Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: B.B. Fulton
McDowell Co.
Comment: NCSU Insect Museum Specimen