Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States

A medium-sized grayish-brown or greenish-yellow grasshopper, marked by large black spots or bands on the forewings. More diagnostic is the elevated central ridge on the pronotum that bears two notches or cuts. Head is relatively large and elevated above the pronotum. Face is usually marked with dark stripes beneath the eyes. Antennae are slender. Forewings are long. Hind wings are quite variable in color. Often they are pale yellow basally with an incomplete black band and the tip of the wing transparent; however, in northern areas color is lacking, and other regional variations are known. Hind tibiae are pale blue or blue gray. Males are 20-25 mm long, females 23-30 mm.

The Kiowa rangeland grasshopper resembles the finned grasshopper, Trachyrhachys aspera. It can be distinguished by the posterior angle of the lateral lobes of the pronotum. In the former the angle is acute, whereas in the latter it is nearly a right angle.