Pine Hopper
I have to admit, I don’t know a thing about this bug other than “Scott Roche sent it to me”. Some kind of gr’opper, to be sure, but beyond that? No clue. It’s do-it-yourself ID day again here at InsectPOD!
What else can we tell? Short, almost stunted wings. The tail end is partially obscured by a pine needle, but it looks like there’s some spurs back there, so I’m guessing this is a female, but again, hard to tell.
So how about it? Can you dig up enough information on BugGuide or wikipedia to id this gr’opper?
Thanks again, Scott–another great photo!
tceisele said,
February 28, 2008 @ 8:32 am
What with the stubby wings and all, I think it’s a nearly-grown nymph. Hey, Scott, where did you take this picture? There’s a large collection of grasshopper ID keys at this USDA site, but a lot of them are region-specific [1] (it obviously won’t do much good to look at the Michigan ID keys if you are in, say, Nebraska).
They have what looks like it might be a really handy ID tool, “Electronic Key for Common Adult Grasshoppers of the Western United States”, that claims to be specifically intended for use by people who have little formal training in insect ID. But, it evidently requires installing the “Lucid” viewer on your machine, and just looking it over I’m not so sure how the installation works. If somebody who is more knowledgeable about computers than me[2] wants to try giving it a whirl, maybe you can get it to tell us something useful.
[1] I really like using region-specific guides when possible. Then you don’t get distracted by the 500 species of “X” that only live in Florida when you are trying to identify an “X” that you found in Michigan.
[2] That isn’t too hard to achieve, by the way. Practically everyone I know is more knowledgeable about computers than me.
JFargo said,
February 28, 2008 @ 9:43 am
Well, as you can tell by the striations on her back legs and the armor-like coverings protecting her wings (they ~look~ small, but it’s just the armor), she’s a female with a mindset towards war.
See, it’s a little known fact, but g’roppers are fierce warriors, bent on the destruction of their worst enemies: Ants. This one is quite obviously ready to go on a raid by herself, probably trying for the Queen.
Good luck, brave warrior. I salute you!
SamWibatt said,
February 28, 2008 @ 12:17 pm
They get mad at the ants for having hoarded food all summer and all that.
I can’t say much about the pic other than: Gr’opper, and a fine specimen.
Scott said,
February 28, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
I took it on Pilot Mountain in Western NC. Definitely one of those instances where keeping your finger on the camera’s trigger is useful.
I love the picture of Grasshoppers as warriors.