| Green Leek Grasshopper (Mecostethus parapleurus (Hagenbach, 1822)) |
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Scientific name: Mecostethus parapleurus (Hagenbach, 1822) Common name: Green Leek Grasshopper French name: Criquet des roseaux, Parapleure alliacé. Order: Orthoptera Family: Acrididae Wingspan : 25 to 28 mm for females; 17 to 21 mm for males. Biotope: Damp meadows, river banks and lake shores, among high grasses or reed beds. Geographic area: Palaearctic region, from Western Europe to Japan. Observation period : June to November. |
Green Leek Grasshoppers are large pale green grasshoppers bearing a thin black stripe running from the eye to the middle of the tegmina. The tegmina are pale brown above this black stripe and pale green below. The wings reach the tip of the abdomen. The pronotum does not show any lateral carina. There are also some brownish specimens. Paracinema tricolor shows red hind tibias while Mecostethus parapleurus shows pale green hind tibias. The above description is for the Mecostethus parapleurus parapleurus subspecies. I have not found much information about the Mecostethus parapleurus turanicus subspecies which is found in Russia. |
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The lateral black stripe is weakly marked here. I have noticed that this marking is variable on the numerous Grasshoppers observed at this place. All the other criteria needed to identify this species are all here. |
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These observations were done among high grasses in a floodplain meadow in the immediate vicinity of a small stream. |
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Here is a Grasshopper with a clearly better marked black stripe. |
André Bon December 2021