Pallid-winged grasshopper

{{short description|Species of grasshopper}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Trimerotropis.jpg

| taxon = Trimerotropis pallidipennis

| display_parents = 3

| authority = (Burmeister, 1838) {{ITIS |id=658812 |taxon=Trimerotropis pallidipennis |accessdate=14 February 2006}}

}}

The pallid-winged grasshopper (Trimerotropis pallidipennis) is a common grasshopper of the family Acrididae, native to the deserts of western North America along with South America, ranging from British Columbia to Argentina.{{cite web |url=http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/grasshopper/nonkey/html/FactSheets/pallidwinged.htm |title=Pallidwinged grasshopper Trimerotropis pallidipennis (Burmeister) |work=Wyoming Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin 912 |year=2002 |author=Robert E. Pfadt}} They are more active during the summer months, and their pale, mottled coloration makes them hard to see against surfaces such as the granite often found in the gravel of dry river beds.{{cite web |url=http://www.insects.org/entophiles/orthoptera/orth_002.html |title=Pallid-winged grasshopper Trimerotropis pallidipennis |publisher=insect.org |author=Dexter Sear |access-date=2006-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303192956/http://www.insects.org/entophiles/orthoptera/orth_002.html |archive-date=2016-03-03 |url-status=dead }} They grow to be {{convert|37|mm}}. The behavior of the pallid-winged grasshopper is apparently determined by temperature, with foraging occurring at temperatures of {{convert|24|-|32|C|F}} and mating at {{convert|30|-|40|C|F}}.{{cite journal |journal=The Southwestern Naturalist |volume=53 |issue=2 |pages=162–168 |year=2008 |title=Effects of temperature on behavior of Trimerotropis pallidipennis (Orthoptera, Acrididae) |author=Casey A. Gilman, Eric C. Toolson & Blair O. Wolf |url=http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1894/0038-4909(2008)53%5B162%3AEOTOBO%5D2.0.CO%3B2|doi=10.1894/0038-4909(2008)53[162:EOTOBO]2.0.CO;2}}

Populations of the pallid-winged grasshopper occasionally irrupt to damaging numbers. Between 1952 and 1980, there were six outbreaks in Arizona, only one of which lasted more than one year.

File:Trimerotropis pallidipennis.jpg