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How to identify it
- Males are strikingly black, 20 to 23 mm long, with working wings that reach nearly to the tip of the abdomen. A black male is more likely to be mistaken for a cricket than for another grasshopper.[1][2]
- Females are much bigger, 34 to 38 mm long, and light brown with light and dark markings. Their forewings usually cover only about half the abdomen and cannot carry them; a few females have long wings, and a few are dark brown or black.[1][2]
- The hind wing is clear to pale blue near the base and black toward the outer end. Hind shins vary from black to red in males and from pale or pinkish to red or purple in females.[1][2]
- Nymphs have a wide tan band down the back and a pale yellow underside.[1]
Look-alikes
| Look-alike | How to tell them apart |
|---|---|
| Boopedon gracile | Females of this related species look much like ebony grasshopper females; the spots on the forewings tell them apart.[2] |
Where it lives
Ranges through western grasslands from Montana to Mexico, in mixedgrass, shortgrass, sand and desert prairie, favoring the lusher stands. In Nebraska it is limited to the southwest and the Panhandle.[1][2]
Biology and life cycle
It is a choosy grass feeder. Blue grama made up most of its diet in southwestern Texas, and western wheatgrass most of it in central Nebraska; needleandthread is another favored grass. It climbs a leaf, bites through it and eats the whole cut piece rather than dropping it.[1][2]
Eggs overwinter in pods laid in bare soil between grass clumps. In eastern Colorado and western Kansas they hatch from late May through the first half of June, two to three weeks after the migratory grasshopper. In Arizona hatching waits for summer rain, beginning about ten days after a soaking.[1]
Nymphs pass through five stages in about 40 days in Colorado, and in as little as 27 to 31 days in Arizona. Adults are most common from late July to September.[1][2]
Because most females cannot fly, populations usually stay put, but whole populations can move on foot. In Arizona, after stripping their habitat in dry years, they marched across low hills to fresh forage.[1]
A parasitic fly larva, Neorhynchocephalus sackenii, feeds inside the grasshopper, stops females from producing eggs and kills its host. In a ten-year Arizona study it held the population down in six of the ten years.[1]
Damage and signs
- At high densities it damages rangeland forage, usually as one of several abundant grasshopper species. Outbreaks are most frequent in the southern mixedgrass and desert prairies of Arizona, New Mexico and western Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, and can last several years.[1][2]
- Western Oklahoma had a severe outbreak in 1955 and another from 1973 to 1979 over 1.5 million acres of prairie, with the ebony grasshopper prominent in both. In Arizona's San Rafael Valley in 1956, a mixed grasshopper population including this species cost an estimated 600 pounds of dry forage per acre.[1]
- In Arizona it has also been found in corn, sorghum and wheat.[1]
Health risk
The sources cover it only as a grass-eating rangeland grasshopper and describe no risk to people.[1][2]
Control
Prevention
In Nebraska it is unlikely to be a pest. Elsewhere, compare the forage value of the range with expected losses before paying for control.[2][3]
Biological control
Natural enemies matter: a parasitic fly held down an Arizona population in six years of a ten-year study, and predators, parasites and diseases help limit grasshoppers generally.[1][3]
Pesticides
Insecticide treatment sharply reduced an Arizona population in 1956. Any product used must be applied according to its label.[1]
Common questions
- Are the black grasshoppers and the brown short-winged ones in my pasture the same species?
- They can be. Male ebony grasshoppers are solid black and long-winged, while females are larger, light brown and usually short-winged.[1][2]
- Can ebony grasshoppers fly?
- Males fly swiftly. Most females cannot, but populations can still migrate by walking when food runs short.[1]
Sources
- USDA Agricultural Research Service, Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, “Ebony Grasshopper, Boopedon nubilum (Say): species fact sheet, Grasshoppers: Their Biology, Identification and Management.” www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/sidney-mt/northern-plains-agricultural-research-laboratory/pest-management-research/pmru-docs/grasshoppers-their-biology-identification-and-management/id-tools-apps/fact-sheets/gomphocerinae-subfamily/fs-ebony/ (accessed 2026-11-09)
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, “The Grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae and Romaleidae) of Nebraska, EB3 (M. L. Brust, W. W. Hoback and R. J. Wright).” extensionpubs.unl.edu/publication/eb3/2009/pdf/view/eb3-2009.pdf (accessed 2026-11-09)
- Utah State University Extension, “Grasshoppers (E. Evans and E. Hodgson, June 2008).” extension.usu.edu/planthealth/research/grasshoppers (accessed 2026-11-09)
- iNaturalist, “Boopedon nubilum taxon page (order and family).” www.inaturalist.org/taxa/215311 (accessed 2026-11-09)