Zayante band-winged grasshopper facts for kids
The Zayante band-winged grasshopper (Trimerotropis infantilis) is a special type of insect that lives only in a small area of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. It's known for its unique looks and how it flies.
Quick facts for kids Zayante band-winged grasshopper |
|
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: |
Trimerotropis
|
| Species: |
T. infantilis
|
| Binomial name | |
| Trimerotropis infantilis Rentz & Weissman, 1984
|
|
Contents
Meet the Zayante Grasshopper!
The Zayante band-winged grasshopper belongs to the insect group called Orthoptera, which includes grasshoppers, crickets, and locusts. It's part of the Acrididae family, known as "short-horned grasshoppers." This grasshopper is found only in Santa Cruz County, California, specifically in an area called the Zayante sandhills. This place is mostly sand and soil with not many plants, and it's part of a special type of pine forest.
What Does It Look Like?
These grasshoppers are not very big.
- Male grasshoppers are about 13.7 to 17.2 millimeters long. That's about half an inch to two-thirds of an inch.
- Female grasshoppers are a bit bigger, ranging from 19.7 to 21.6 millimeters long. That's almost an inch!
They have cool colors. Their front wings are tan to gray with darker stripes. Their back wings are pale yellow and have a faint, thin band that you can see when they fly. Even their eyes have stripes! Their lower legs, called tibiae, are blue and gray.
Flying and Sounds
Zayante band-winged grasshoppers are good flyers. They can fly distances of three to seven feet. When they fly, they make a buzzing sound. This sound helps them scare away animals that might want to eat them.
Even though they look a lot like other grasshoppers, what makes them special is that they only live in this specific sandhills area. They are most active and fly from late May to October, with their busiest time being in July and August.
Where Do They Live?
The Zayante sandhills are a very unique place. Long, long ago, a shallow sea covered a big part of California. When the Santa Cruz Mountains formed, sand from the old ocean floor was pushed up, creating the sandhills we see today. This special habitat is home to plants and animals that don't live anywhere else in the world! It's one of the rarest ecosystems in California and even in the whole United States.
Other Rare Neighbors
The Zayante sandhills ecosystem is not just home to the endangered Zayante band-winged grasshopper. Many other rare species live there too, and some of them are also on the endangered species list. These include:
- The Mount Hermon June beetle
- The Santa Cruz wallflower (a type of flower)
- The Ben Lomond buckwheat (another type of plant)
- The Bonny Doon manzanita (a shrub)
- The Ben Lomond spineflower
- The Santa Cruz kangaroo rat
Why Are They in Danger?
The Zayante band-winged grasshopper is listed as an endangered species, which means it's at high risk of disappearing forever. The biggest problem for them is that their habitat, the sandhills, is shrinking.
Threats to Their Home
- Habitat Loss: People are building new homes and businesses, farming, and digging for sand (called sand mining) in the sandhills. A lot of the sandhills area has already been changed by these activities.
- New Plants: Plants that are not native to the sandhills are growing there and taking over. These "non-native" plants crowd out the native plants that the grasshoppers need, making their home less suitable. Two non-native plants, Portuguese broom and sea fig, are causing big problems.
- Other Dangers: Sometimes, too many grasshoppers are collected by people, and pesticides (chemicals used to kill insects) can also harm them.
Efforts to Protect Them
To help protect the Zayante band-winged grasshopper and its home, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has marked certain areas in the sandhills as "critical habitats." These areas are in communities like Mount Hermon, Felton, Ben Lomond, Zayante, and Scotts Valley.
There are also special plans called Habitat Conservation Plans in place to try and save these unique species. However, almost two-thirds of the remaining sandhills habitat is privately owned and not protected, which makes it harder to save. Still, many groups, including Santa Cruz County, the City of Scotts Valley, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are working together to protect what's left of this very special place.
