Red-legged Grasshopper
Melanoplus femurrubrum
Granite Mountain Wilderness, Yavapai Co., Arizona, USA. 14 Sept. 2012. This example, like many from the southwestern USA, is rather dark, melanistic.
Acrididae -- Grasshopper Family
This is a widespread grasshopper species found across much of the United States. They feed on a variety of broad-leaf plants such as would be found growing between the trees in ponderosa woodland. This same grasshopper when numerous can damage garden and small farm crops. In Arizona it is also found in riparian and oak-juniper woodlands. There are many, many other grasshopper species inhabiting Arizona woodlands.
