The effort was driven in large part by periodic summer collecting trips by the study’s first and third authors, who visited Wisconsin for one to three weeks each year between 2005 and 2023, sweeping specimens with aerial nets and photographing others in the field. But the researchers also leaned heavily on a resource that simply did not exist when the 2005 guide was compiled: online citizen science platforms. BugGuide and iNaturalist, where volunteers upload geotagged photographs of insects with dates and locations, supplied a substantial portion of the new records and, in one remarkable case, revealed an entire species breeding in the state that no one had formally documented before.

The scale of the update is striking for several species. Melanoplus punctulatus, an arboreal grasshopper that spends much of its life in trees and shrubs, jumped from 10 recorded counties to 30, an increase of more than 50 percent. Dichromorpha viridis rose from 14 counties to 23, Melanoplus viridipes from 23 to 33, and Melanoplus walshii from 20 to 27. Dendrotettix quercus, Melanoplus fasciatus, Melanoplus scudderi, and the wetland-dwelling Stethophyma lineata each gained at least 20 percent more county records. In total, 28 of Wisconsin’s 72 previously recorded short-horned grasshopper species gained new county records during the study period.

The most dramatic discovery, however, was Melanoplus gracilis, a species never before recorded in Wisconsin. Nine photographs of the grasshopper were found on iNaturalist, three showing nymphs and six showing adults, from three southeastern counties: Ozaukee, Walworth, and Waukesha. The earliest records date to August 31, 2020, in Ozaukee County. Because Melanoplus gracilis is flightless and nymphs were documented, the evidence indicates the species is actively breeding in southeastern Wisconsin rather than merely straying across the border, and the authors suggest it likely occupies additional counties in the region.

A separate state record, Trimerotropis pallidipennis, was collected in Price County in June 2022 and reported previously, so it is not counted as new here. Still, its significance is worth noting: the male specimen was found roughly 6.5 kilometers east of Fifield, more than 600 kilometers from the nearest previously known occurrence. The species is native to the southwestern United States and regularly disperses across Texas, Oklahoma, and the western Great Plains, and the researchers believe the Wisconsin individual most likely arrived on a significant weather front, a reminder that insect distributions can shift dramatically in a single storm event.

Why did so many species go unrecorded for so long? The answer, the authors argue, lies largely in habitat specialization and the historical biases of grasshopper survey work. Of the eight species whose county records increased by at least 20 percent, seven are associated with woodlands or woodland edges, and two of those are arboreal, spending most of their time in the forest canopy. Grasshopper research has traditionally focused on species of agricultural and economic importance, which means the insects of rangelands and crop fields are well cataloged while woodland dwellers, wetland specialists, and small cryptic species are frequently overlooked. The pattern is not unique to Wisconsin: a comparable effort in Nebraska yielded eight new state records in just three years simply by sampling beyond grasslands and across a broader seasonal window.

Some of the state’s smallest and most inconspicuous grasshoppers are probably far more widespread than current records indicate. Melanoplus islandicus and Melanoplus dawsoni, both very small and mostly flightless, likely occur across most of the northern half of Wisconsin, the former in small woodland openings and the latter in meadows and along woodland edges. At the other extreme, several habitat generalists probably live in every one of Wisconsin’s 72 counties even though the records do not show it. Species such as Arphia sulphurea, Chloealtis conspersa, Chortophaga viridifasciata, Dissosteira carolina, Melanoplus bivittatus, Melanoplus femurrubrum, Melanoplus sanguinipes, and Pseudochorthippus curtipennis thrive in roadsides, gardens, disturbed ground, and field edges, and their broad host-plant tolerance makes them easy to find once someone looks.

Citizen science proved powerful but demanded careful vetting. On BugGuide, where only site editors can move images between taxa and insect taxonomists frequently review submissions, species identifications are generally dependable. iNaturalist is more of a mixed bag: identification accuracy varies widely and misidentified specimens are abundant, so the first author personally examined each candidate record and accepted only those where the species identification was conclusive based on visible anatomical structures. The approach paid off, and the authors note that several additional county records were added to iNaturalist in 2024 and will need to be incorporated in future updates. The usefulness of these platforms is particularly evident for arboreal species like Melanoplus punctulatus, which collectors rarely notice but photographers frequently capture.

The update also raises taxonomic questions that may reshape Wisconsin’s grasshopper list in the coming years. The status of Melanoplus foedus fluviatilis, currently treated as a subspecies, is actively debated: differences in habitat preference, flight behavior, plant associations, coloration, and body measurements, together with the apparent absence of hybrids where the two forms co-occur, suggest it may warrant full species status. Similarly, Hesperotettix viridis pratensis, the form found in Wisconsin’s western counties, may prove to be a distinct species from Hesperotettix viridis viridis, with genetic differences that track host-plant associations. Ongoing research on the genus is expected to clarify these boundaries.

Not all the news is about additions. Pardalophora haldemanii, a grassland species of the Great Plains, has not been seen in Wisconsin in more than 50 years, and the authors suspect it may have been extirpated. The species requires large, connected grassland tracts, and most of Wisconsin’s grasslands have become small, isolated, or heavily invaded by nonnative grasses, a combination that makes long-term persistence unlikely. Several other historical records are questionable: the flightless southeastern species Romalea microptera was probably recorded from escaped captive specimens, a 1976 record of Paratylotropidia brunneri sits more than 400 kilometers north of its nearest known population and may represent a rare native remnant, and single old records of Encoptolophus costalis, Pardalophora phoenicoptera, and Schistocerca damnifica are considered doubtful, possibly the result of mislabeled specimens. The authors also flag two host-plant specialists, Hypochlora alba and Campylacantha olivacea, as species to watch for, since both have been photographed within striking distance of the state’s borders and their favored food plants grow widely across Wisconsin. Targeted searches on those host plants, the researchers suggest, are the logical next step in a survey that is clearly far from finished.

Subject of Research: Updated county-level distribution records for Wisconsin short-horned grasshoppers based on field surveys and citizen science data

Article Title: Updated county-level distribution records for Wisconsin short-horned grasshoppers ( Orthoptera , Acrididae and Romaleidae )

Article References: Brust, M. L., Bomar, C., & Harman, A. J. (2025). Updated county-level distribution records for Wisconsin short-horned grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae and Romaleidae). Journal of Orthoptera Research, 34(1), 143-149. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.34.124604

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.34.124604

Keywords: grasshoppers, Orthoptera, Acrididae, Wisconsin, citizen science, iNaturalist, BugGuide, species distribution, Melanoplus, woodland insects, biodiversity survey, new state record

The gourd family, Cucurbitaceae, is one of the most economically important lineages of flowering plants on Earth. According to the taxonomic framework used by the researchers, it comprises roughly 100 genera and 1,069 species distributed across temperate and tropical regions. Most members are prostrate or climbing herbs and shrubs equipped with spirally curled tendrils, the signature climbing organ that allows them to scramble over forest understorey vegetation. The family includes crops of global significance, and several species, among them Cucumis melo and Hodgsonia macrocarpa, are also used in traditional medicine across Asia. Yet the wild relatives of these cultivated forms are increasingly threatened, because overharvesting in natural habitats pushes many of them toward extinction.

Assam has a long but discontinuous history of botanical exploration. In the landmark Flora of Assam, published in 1938, Kanjilal and his co-workers reported five genera and 26 species with one variety of Cucurbitaceae from the state. Decades later, Barooah and Ahmed updated that picture, listing 37 species under 20 genera. After that, the authors note, there was a long gap in floristic and conservation work on the gourd family in Northeast India. That gap matters, because wild cucurbits are not merely botanical curiosities; they carry genetic traits such as disease resistance and drought tolerance that plant breeders may one day need for the crops that feed the world.

The study area itself is unusual. Bherjan-Borajan-Padumoni Wildlife Sanctuary is not a single block of forest but a combination of three distinct patches, Bherjan, Borjan and Padumoni, lying between latitudes 27 and 27.4 degrees north and longitudes 95 and 95.5 degrees east. The vegetation is classified as tropical wet evergreen rainforest, almost entirely closed under a continuous tree canopy. Despite its small size, the sanctuary shelters rare and endangered animals such as the Assamese macaque, the hoolock gibbon and the capped langur, along with notable birds including the streak-throated woodpecker, the greater yellownape, the lesser flameback and the osprey. Botanically, it hosts species such as the giant dipterocarp Dipterocarpus macrocarpus and the locally significant Ixora bawae.

To capture that diversity in a quantifiable way, the researchers laid three belt transects of 300 by 50 metres at random in each part of the sanctuary as permanent plots. Within each plot, five quadrats of 10 by 10 metres were randomly established for tree species, and inside those, two smaller quadrats of 5 by 5 metres captured shrubs, saplings and seedlings, while two quadrats of 1 by 1 metre recorded herbs. This nested phytosociological design allowed the team to sample every vertical layer of the forest, from the canopy down to the forest floor, where many climbing cucurbits begin their lives.

Specimens of all plant species encountered were collected together with photographs, and herbarium material was prepared using standard taxonomic methods. Voucher specimens were deposited at the herbarium of the North Eastern Institute of Ayurveda and Folk Medicine Research, each with a collection number and accession number. Identification was carried out by consulting the relevant literature and herbarium collections at Indian herbaria including ARUN, ASSAM, BSHC and CAL, and was confirmed through the original species descriptions, known as protologues, and images of type specimens held at CAL, E and K. Detailed morphological examination took place both in the field and in the laboratory, a double-check that is essential when a record claims to be new for a state.

The surveys, conducted between 2024 and 2025, yielded twelve species in ten genera of Cucurbitaceae from the sanctuary. The list reads like a catalogue of the family’s architectural range. Actinostemma tenerum, a slender climber with ovate to sagittate-ovate leaves and white flowers borne in racemes, fruits in small oblong-ellipsoid capsules. Coccinia grandis, the familiar ivy gourd, was found in semievergreen forest and along forest margins. Cucumis melo, the wild melon, crept through open forest areas, while Diplocyclos palmatus, with its palmately five-lobed leaves and globose indehiscent fruits, climbed through open woodland. Trichosanthes costata and Trichosanthes tricuspidata, both snake gourd relatives with elaborate white flowers and ribbed or oblong fruits, were recorded in mixed and evergreen forest respectively.

Two of the most spectacular finds are giants of the climbing world. Hodgsonia macrocarpa forms vines up to 20 to 30 metres long, with three-lobed leaves and enormous fruits reaching 15 to 18 centimetres in diameter, densely covered in grey hairs. Indofevillea khasiana, a robust branched climber recorded in the Borjan range, bears leathery, broadly ovate-cordate leaves up to 26 centimetres long and distinctive oblong fruits with a thick woody rind that hang in clusters on the stalk. The genus Thladiantha was represented twice, by T. cordifolia in evergreen forest and T. hookeri, whose stems can stretch 2 to 10 metres through the canopy. Luffa aegyptiaca, the wild luffa whose mature fruits become strongly fibrous, rounded out the inventory.

The headline discovery, Cucumis hystrix, is a monoecious scandent climber with angular, scabrous, hirsute stems and ovate to triangular-ovate leaves that are irregularly five-lobed. Its male and female flowers are both solitary in the leaf axils, with yellow corollas, and its ellipsoid-oblong fruits, 4 to 5 centimetres long, are covered in spine-like protuberances 2 to 4 millimetres long, the feature that gives the species its name. The plant was collected in the Bherjan range at about 130 metres above sea level, flowering and fruiting between August and January. A careful search of the literature and of herbarium specimens across Indian collections verified that the taxon had never been reported for Assam before. Its known distribution spans Meghalaya’s Garo Hills, Karnataka, Tripura, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and southwest China, but within Assam it appears, so far, to be confined to this single sanctuary.

The conservation implications are stark. Of the 20 genera and 37 species recorded for Assam, the presence of 12 species and ten genera inside one small sanctuary is considered significant by the authors, and three of the species found there, Indofevillea khasiana, Thladiantha cordifolia and Thladiantha hookeri, are regarded as rare in the state. The sanctuary is under pressure from expanding tea gardens and oil fields, major anthropogenic drivers of habitat change in the region. The researchers argue that urgent conservation measures are needed, including the identification of prioritised areas for in-situ conservation within protected areas, so that wild gourds, including the newly confirmed spiny cucumber, can survive in the forest habitats where their genetic legacy has evolved over millennia.

Subject of Research: Floristic diversity of the gourd family Cucurbitaceae in a small Assam wildlife sanctuary, including a new state record

Article Title: Diversity of Cucurbitaceae Juss. in Bherjan-Borajan-Padumoni Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, with Cucumis hystrix Chakrav. as a new addition to the state flora

Article References: Baro, D., & Bawri, A. (2026). Diversity of Cucurbitaceae Juss. in Bherjan-Borajan-Padumoni Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, with Cucumis hystrix Chakrav. as a new addition to the state flora. Discover Plants, 3(1), Article 445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44372-026-00894-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s44372-026-00894-5

Keywords: Cucurbitaceae, Cucumis hystrix, Assam, Bherjan-Borajan-Padumoni Wildlife Sanctuary, floristic survey, plant taxonomy, biodiversity, new state record, conservation, Northeast India, wild crop relatives, herbarium