The grasshopper with the beautiful red legs...

Late Sunday afternoon after getting home from the bird symposium, I headed over to the Little Miami River to decompress and look for a few migrating warblers. Almost immediately an American Redstart and a female Chestnut-sided Warbler flew into view, and a Yellow-billed Cuckoo sang his knocking song the entire time I was there. Lots of other birds made an appearance too, including all the usual suspects, but this little grasshopper is what really caught my attention, so I hunkered down to watch and photograph it...

...a Red-legged Locust (Melanoplus femur-rubrum)--also know as a Red-legged Grasshopper, cleans its antenna. I never really noticed how short a grasshopper's antenna (or "horns") were compared to the size of its body. Lang Elliott points this out in his book, "The Songs of Insects," where he mentions antenna size is a distinguishing characteristic between katydids ("long-horned" grasshoppers) and locusts ("short-horned" grasshoppers).

Red-legged Grasshoppers are members of the genus Spur-throated Grasshoppers (Melanoplus).

Spur-throated Grasshoppers do not sing. I read that fact in "The Songs of Insects," by Lang Elliott. I had always assumed locusts sang just like katydids, crickets and cicadas. Elliott clued me in...only Slant-faced Grasshoppers fiddle and sing (or stridulate). Their songs are "soft and muffled" (Elliott, 178). They fiddle by rubbing the inner surface of their hind femurs (upper leg) against the edges of their forewings. The spines you see along the tibia of the Red-legged Grasshopper are for gripping, not stridulating.

...when I arrived at the river, the skies were heavy with grey clouds and darkness was seeping in among the grasses. I didn't know if the photos would turn out. They are not great, but they are good enough to capture the grasshopper's coloring. With red legs, a yellowish underbody, and a greenish head, she's hard to miss...

...striated muscles are bound in the beautiful herringbone pattern that makes up the hind leg (femur). Those muscles fuel the incredible jump that allows grasshoppers to cover lots of space with what looks like little effort.

Note After sniffing around the Internet a bit, I found a very interesting and helpful site detailing how a grasshopper jumps--seems the mechanics of a catapult are at play. Click here for a link to a video of the catapult in the knee of a grasshopper (by the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, UK). Click here for the first page in a step-by-step series explaining how a grasshopper jumps (keep clicking "next" to read the entire explanation--also by the University of St. Andrews). If humans had the same capabilities, we would be able to fling ourselves over 40 feet away.

...Red-legged Grasshopper (Locust) backlit in the fading afternoon light.

I love the little claws at the end of the talus that help them climb.

Have you ever seen a grasshopper poop?

...and did you ever think you'd see a title like that on my blog? I wasn't going to include these photos, but Matty convinced me "the news must be reported mom, and a grasshopper pooping is news...especially to my friends." So...here it is, for Matty's friends and other boys 12-16. Until Sunday, I had no idea what grasshopper excrement looked like because I'd never seen one defecate...so I guess you really do learn something new every day...

p.s. A neat book I found on the web is called "The Grasshopper Book," by Wilfrid S. Bronson. It was written for children in 1894. Click here for the preview. I loved the language and the artwork and am going to try to find it. Here is a brief excerpt:

Finally there comes a fair spring day when the lucky little grasshoppers hatch. The majority of insects begin life as caterpillars or maggots or grubs of some sort, eat furiously for a while, and then sink into a deep sleep during which all the alterations come about that change them from infants into adults. Their baby state is very different from the grown-up state. A caterpillar looks nothing like a butterfly, a maggot isn't like a fly, a grub bears no resemblance to a beetle or an ant. But a baby grasshopper is a grasshopper from the start. Lacking only wings, it is otherwise like its parents, except, of course, in its proportions. In common with many other infant animals, it has a head and legs which look a lot too large for its body. Besides the droll appearance this creates, it even shares a little of their look of charming innocence.

Red-legged Grasshopper from behind. Even at this angle, the grasshopper has beautiful markings...

Watching those antenna

I enjoyed the time I spent watching this grasshopper on an afternoon in August. He was very active, but most active were his antenna. They were constantly moving....down, middle, up. Antenna do so much, no wonder he never stopped moving them. Antenna can sense odor, humidity, vibration, wind velocity and direction (found on this site). We're not positive, but we think this guy looks a lot like a Red-legged Locust (Melanoplus femur-rubrum)--also know as a Red-legged Grasshopper.

Here they are down.....touching the flower head.

...then they started moving up.

...all the way up. It was fun to watch him eat (I think that's what he was doing). Can you see how his front leg is putting something in his mouth. He did this over and over. I assume he was grabbing part of the flower to eat. I don't know, though, and I didn't have the energy to research. I'll look into that later. He also would use his front leg to run over his antenna--like a kitty running his paw over his ear! It was very interesting to watch...

...now they are down! Does anyone know what those little red things are? He (or she) had them on both sides.

Thanks, Steve for letting me know the red things are mites. In Steve's own words: "There are several species of mites that can be found on grasshoppers. Some are actually parasites and others are just hitching a ride to a new location."

...back up!

The Beauty and Geometry of the Grasshopper

While studying a grasshopper in late August at VOA park, I was amazed at his (or her) beauty. I don't know much about grasshoppers, but I learned to appreciate their beauty and perfect geometry that afternoon.

As I was studying the herringbone pattern on this Red-legged Grasshopper's back leg, I couldn't help but feel a sense of geometry. Parallel lines in the segmented abdomen added to the geometric feel--even the wings when folded together formed a triangle.

...moving to the head, his or her compound eyes are made of hundreds of hexagonal facets, and the segmented antenna contain more parallel lines.

...even in the center of his face, three ocelli form a perfect triangle (the ocelli are simple eyes that detect light intensity and may help flying insects find sea level for flight stability). Perfectly made, the insect really opened my eyes to the symmetry and geometry that usually went unnoticed around me.

On The Grasshopper And Cricket

By John Keats

The poetry of earth is never dead:


When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,


And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run


From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead:


That is the grasshopper's -- he takes the lead


In summer luxury, -- he has never done


With his delights, for when tired out with fun,


He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.


The poetry of earth is ceasing never:


On a lone winter evening, when the frost


Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills


The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,


And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,


The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

December 30, 1816