''Chorthippus jutlandica'', the Jutland bow-winged grasshopper, is a species of

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

in the subfamily

Gomphocerinae Gomphocerinae, sometimes called "slant-faced grasshoppers", are a subfamily of grasshoppers found on every continent but Antarctica and Australia. Tribes and genera Tribes and genera include: Arcypterini Auth.: Bolívar, 1914 - Africa, Palearc ...

. It is endemic to sparsely vegetated coastal sand dunes in an area covering only between

Blåvandshuk Blåvandshuk is a headland on the North Sea coast of Jutland northwest of Esbjerg, and is the westernmost point of metropolitan Denmark. The Blåvand Lighthouse is the westernmost located building in Denmark. Natural Environment A significant ...

and

Hvide Sande Hvide Sande is a small town in the middle of the Holmsland Dunes and placed around the artificial canal which connects Ringkøbing Fjord to the North Sea, in the western part of Central Denmark Region, formerly (until 1 January 2007) Ringkjøbing ...

in western Jutland, Denmark, but it is common (often the most common grasshopper species in its range and habitat) and not considered to be under any threat. Unusual for a very well-surveyed small country, the species was only scientifically described in 2003, having long been confused with its similar relatives, especially '' C. biguttulus''. It was first noticed in the early 1990s that some grasshoppers in the area had a different song. It is extremely similar to ''C. biguttulus'', '' C. brunneus'' and '' C. mollis'' (of which only ''C. brunneus'' overlaps in range with ''C. jutlandica'') and only males can be reliably separated by details of their forewings and the sound of their stridulation ("song"). ''C. jutlandica'' likely is the result of hybrid speciation with the ancient parent species being ''C. biguttulus'' and ''C. brunneus''. Today ''C. jutlandica'' is essentially reproductively isolated from ''C. brunneus'' because females' are uninterested in the other species' song; captive studies have shown that female ''C. jutlandica'' are interested in the song of male ''C. biguttulus'', but any interbreeding in the wild is prevented by their separate distributions.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4036171 jutlandica Orthoptera of Europe Endemic fauna of Denmark Insects described in 2003