Egyptian Grasshopper from Israel

bugman

January 4th, 2010 at 9:10 am

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What is that?
January 4, 2010
We found it inside a log in the garden/ It didnt move at all for three days…..now it’s gone. All we have is the post I posted in my blog with the pictures and a need to know what it was….?
you can see the pictures in the link. thank you
Website http://www.notes.co.il/chelli/63733.asp?p=0
chelli Goldenberg

Egyptian Grasshopper

Dear chelli,
We don’t read Hebrew, so we couldn’t benefit from your blog posting. The photos do not show the entire body of the insect, but the head appears to be that of a Grasshopper in the suborder Caelifera. We are confused as to why it would have been inside a log as this is not the natural habitat nor the food for Grasshoppers. We tried to search the web for information on Grasshoppers from Israel, but we did not find anything that remotely resembled this individual.

Dear Daniel
Thany you so much for answering me.
We were hoping it’s an alien me and my 14 years old daughter
I’v also wrote to Pro. lev Fishelson from Tea Aviv U – the
zoology faculty this morning, and he just wrote me that this is a young Anacridium aegyptium….
So now both of us have learn something new today:)
Thank you again
Chelli and Aya

Hi again Chelli,
Thank you for providing us with the scientific name of the Egyptian Grasshopper or Egyptian Locust. We are linking to the Wildside Holidays page on this species as well as several amusing reports of residents from the UK finding Egyptian Grasshoppers in salads. We are guessing we may hear from noted entomophagist David Gracer that Egyptian Grasshoppers are edible.

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Comments 1

Dave wrote:
Some experts would suggest caution about viewing any given insect species as edible unless their consumption is already documented. Others speak of animal trials or even biological logic: if it’s cryptic then that’s its defense — as opposed to toxins or other noxious chemistry.
There are very few documented cases of people dying after eating grasshoppers, and they concerned brightly-colored species. Yet I know of one brightly colored grasshopper species that’s commonly eaten.
Some grasshopper/locust species are classified as kosher, and there’s a lot that could be said about that. I recently had an unconfirmed report that Yemeni Jews have a particular tradition of grasshopper consumption, and I would love to learn more about that.
Best wishes to all in the new year,
Dave
http://www.smallstockfoods.com
Posted 04 Jan 2010 at 10:14 am ¶