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The adults of both sexes are very similar in general appearance. It is overall yellowish in color, with yellowish brown tegmina. Postocular bars are usually poorly developed but may occasionally consist of a somewhat broad black band. The postocular bars of Melanoplus bowditchi tend to be much more developed, but this is not always a dependable character. The hind femur is whitish over the lower third, with diffuse blue covering much of the middle and fading to yellowish along the dorsal third or also covering the dorsal third, and becoming largely contiuous with two distinct brownish to blackish bars in the dorsal region of the outer surface. The continuous dark areas extending from the upper half of the outer surface to the dorsal surface is a fairly reliable character to differentiate M. flavidus from M. bowditchi. The hind femur is distinctly orange-yellow along the ventral edge. The dorsal ridges of the hind femur have at least some blackish on the edge of the ridge (at least one), while in M. bowditchi the edges of the ridges are always pale to moderately brown. The inner surface of the hind femur is unmarked greenish yellow, yellow, or orange-yellow. While the inner hind femur is normally more yellowish in color than in M. bowditchi (in which is distinctly orange), even this character overlaps in a few specimens of each species. The hind tibiae are blue with spines blackish at the tips. The cerci of the male are virtually indistinguishable from those of M. bowditchi. It is normally best differentiated from M. bowditchi by comparing aedeagal features of the male, but characters of the hind femur are consistently different in Nebraska populations. The end of the aedeagus in M. bowditchi is rounded, but has a distinct cup-like depression in M. flavidus. In addition, the shape of the furculae is a consistent tool to differentiate these two species. In M. bowditchi the ends of the furculae are distinctly incurved, rounded, and not expanded. In M. flavidus the ends are sometimes recurved as well, but are bluntly squared off and slightly widened near the tip.
The nymphs (Figs. 1-5) are identifiable by their shape, stripes, and color: 1. Head with face nearly vertical; face colored greenish yellow with dark stripe behind eye; antennae filiform; compound eye with no distinct markings. 2. Cream-colored crescent begins on side of head below and to the rear of the compound eye and runs onto lobe of pronotum; however, side of head may be solid greenish yellow without crescent in early instars and a cream-colored line may also be lacking on pronotal lobe. 3. Medial area of hind femur variable - with fuscous stripe entire, small notch in dorsal part of fuscous stripe 2/3 to distal end diagnostic in all instars. 4. Body color is greenish yellow; underside greenish yellow. |
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