Eximacris phenax = Trimerotropis maritima

[Melanie]

Big Cedar Grasshopper
(Eximacris phenax)

from Oklahoma

[Melanie]

Cook, S.P. 1998. Early-season survey for Eximacris phenax and E. superbum (Orthoptera: Acrididae) in southeastern Oklahoma. Final Report to The Nature Conservancy. 5p.

[sebbe67]

is known from a single male collected at Big Cedar in the Kiamichi Mountains of Oklahoma. Searches for this species have also been unsuccessful;

[holdersteven]

Hello I'm a new member. Thanks for creating this site. I've always been fascinated by anything that crawls,swims,flys,walks, ....etc. I've never studied Insects in earnest other than my 7th grade bio project. As an assignment to complete the school year. Myself and my classs mates were allowed a few options for the theme of their term project . I chose to build an Insect collection. In Central Calif. in the mid 1960's there was a variety of locust that would "sing" at night. Their sound was distinct but I could'nt begin to describe it. I had heard them often and regularly in the summer. Being tree dwellers and never seen. The bug was elusive! Until I stalked the sound with a net and a flashlight one evening. This night's singing was coming from the alfalfa field across the street from my home in Turlock Ca. To make Long story short, I was successful in taking acouple of prisoners. And Boy was I suprized at the odd appearance of this variety of locust! Mind you I had always loved bugs and had met many in my 13 years up to this point. Not a katy-did, or the giant green grasshopper with a red stripe that I had marveled over a time or two in the past. This one was unique. Very pointy and narrow head, that angled downward in a streamlined look.With a very thin and long body . About 2" long. They were tan/beige with a creamy colored underside.Slightly lighter in color than the back and wings. Seems there was a darker brown stripe along the sides or down the back. I showed many my find but no one had ever seen one. I even went so far as to contact an exibitor at the county fair who had also captured one. His was displayed in an insect collection entered in 4-H displays.Yet he could not identify it and was experiencing the same mystery of I.D ing this bug. I dont know to what extent he had persued finding an answer. I sometimes wonder about theses bugs after 45 years have past. I have not heard them call in the summer evenings for many many years. Nor have I found pictures of anything similar when I have taken afew mins to search them on the web. I wonder if they were un-dicovered, and nowextinct as well.
A bigger tragedy is'nt possible than loosing a species.I can remember when things were very different, . After finding this site ,I can see that what I was afraid of happening, has become a reality. I didn't want to look, because I knew what the news would be.

[surroundx]

Hi Steven. Welcome to the site! Unfortunately there are no pictures available of many extinct species, especially invertebrates. Nobody seems to care much about them which is a great sadness. But the grasshopper(?) you mention certainly sounds very interesting, and since you no longer hear its calls it is probably at least locally extinct to the region where you live. And also potentially wholly extinct. Can you remember any other details concerning this mystery insect which may help us track down its true identity?

[Peter]

Welcome holdersteven. Thank for joining this forum and sharing your interesting story! It is indeed sad that many species have disappeared. Sad but true. And most likely even many that were not yet discovered and unknown to science...

What happened to the specimens of locust that you caught? Do you still have them in an insect collection? Did you maybe make a picture?

[Deleted]

this is a synonym of Trimerotropis maritima (Harris), which is still extant