Ozmacris peninsulae Hill 2025, comb. nov.
Creators: name: Hill, JoVonn G.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Acrididae
Ozmacris
Ozmacris peninsulae

description: Ozmacris peninsulae (Scudder) comb. nov.
Figs 2 C, 3 H, 6 B, 9 B, 12 A–J, 13 A–E, 14 A–D, 15 A–D, 16
Barytettix peninsulae Scudder, 1897: 28; Rehn and Hebard 1912: 74; Otte and Cohn 2002.
Sinaloa peninsulae (Scudder): Bruner 1908: 305; Hebard 1925: 288; Otte 1995: 413.
Diagnosis.
Ozmacris peninsulae is a medium-sized, brachypterous, greenish grasshopper with bicolored (black and white) oval tegmina (Figs 2 C, 6 B). The green coloration and shape and color of the tegmina separate it from most other melanoplines on the Baja peninsula. It can be further distinguished from Barytettix in having a non-conical subgenital plate and toothed male cerci. While the genus is monotypic, the characters of the male terminalia and genitalia typically used for species-level identification in the Melanoplinae are detailed in the generic description above and illustrated in Fig. 12 A – I.
Male measurements
(mm). (n = 1). Body length 15.0; pronotum length 4.1; tegmen length 2.1; hind femur length 11.6; cerci length 0.9; basal width of cercus 0.3; mid-cercal width 0.3; cerci apex width 0.3.
Phallus measurements
(mm). (n = 1). Length 0.6; apex width 0.2; middle width 0.5; basal width 0.5. Because both pairs of valves are largely parallel and fit closely together the structures were measured as a single unit.
Female measurements
(mm). (n = 3). Body length 18.6–23.5 (mean = 21.2); pronotum length 4.2–5.0 (mean = 4.6) tegmen length 2.5–3.2 (mean = 2.9); hind femur length 10.5–13.2 (mean = 11.8); dorsal ovipositor valve length 1.7–2.0 (mean = 1.7); ventral ovipositor valve length 1.3–1.7 (mean = 1.7).
Holotype.
Lower California • 1 ♀; G. Eisen Deposited in the California Academy of Science.
Specimens examined.
Mexico • Baja California Sur, 1 ♀; Cabo San Lucas; 17 October 1974 • 1 ♂, 1 ♀; 3 km S Todos Santos at Km 55.5; 28 August 1995; el 120 m; DB Weissman, DC Lightfoot (DB Weissman Stop # 95–89) • 1 ♀ 11.2 km S Todos Santos on road to Todos Santos; 27 September 1979, DB Weissman, DC Lightfoot; # 79–208.
iNaturalist observation numbers.
252092963, 191705108, 188043064, 99096505, 98953983, 17968068, 19187122.
Habitat.
From personal communication with Dave Weissman: “ At S 95–89, we were specifically looking for B. peninsulae. The GPS for the near exact spot is 23.418251 - 110.214600, 23 m elevation. The vegetation was scrub thorn but heavily overgrazed. The area had had adequate rain by the vegetation. We searched for 1 hour looking for hoppers. We checked many plants and stomped a lot of bushes. The last instar male and female that we collected were both in bushes, most of which had few leaves. They were a bitch to catch when we saw them and my notes say that we got both that we saw. Nothing on the ground. I had my colleague Bruce Bartholomew (CAS Dept of Botany) ID some branches that I brought back: Ruellia californica × peninsularis (Acanthaceae) was his tentative ID but made difficult since I am not sure if there were even leaves present. ”
Distribution.
Ozmacris peninsulae is known only from the Cape Region of Baja California (Fig. 16).
Suggested Common Name.
Baja bauble.
description: Published as part of Hill, JoVonn G., 2025, Two new genera of grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae) from Baja California, Mexico, with a regional key to the genera of Melanoplinae, pp. 75-97 in ZooKeys 1238 on pages 75-97, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1238.147762