Stick Insect bug
Location: Bushland in Western Victoria
January 29, 2012 12:53 am
Hello,
I’ve discovered a bug that seems to belong to the Phasmatodea family, but because it has legs like a grasshopper (it jumps pretty fast) i’m not sure what family it belongs to let alone its genus or species. Could you identify this bug and inform me of what it feeds on?
Thanks
Signature: Jordan

Green Grass Pyrgomorph

Dear Jordan,
We believe we have correctly identified your Grasshopper as a Green Grass Pyrgomorph in the genus Atractomorpha based on photographs posted to the Brisbane Insect Website which indicates:  “This grasshopper is also known as Vegetable Grasshopper. They are common in Brisbane and easily found on grasses and other garden plants.”  The site also states:  “The Vegetable Grasshoppers feed on different type of leaves, mainly on dicotyledonous plants.”

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Peruvian Grasshopper Photos
Date:     January 19, 2012 10:12:38 AM PST
Location:  Peru
Okay, here are pics of a couple of grasshoppers that caught my attention in Peru last November.
… 2. “Yellow Grasshoppers”: photo of a male (enlarged portion of which you saw this morning), and a photo of a mating pair. Near Tarapoto, Dept. San Martín, northern Peru, 5 November 2011. On roadside vegetation, on top of a large leaf of a plant that may be in the Euphorbiaceae (most of which are toxic), but not sure if this was the foodplant or just a perching spot. (Photographed by our Peruvian bird guide, Silverio Duri, using my sister’s camera.)
You’re welcome to publish these if you see fit.
Julian

Gaudy or Lubber Grasshopper???

Hi Julian,
We have not been able to substantiate our identification with any matching photographs on the internet, but we believe these lovely creatures with aposomatic or warning coloration nodules on their heads and thoracic sections are Pyrgomorphs or Gaudy Grasshoppers.  Was there any milkweed nearby.  The look very much like the Toxic Milkweed Grasshoppers in the family.  We did locate this wonderful website called Flickriver:  Most interesting photos tagged with pyrgomorphidae, but alas, your beauties are not represented.

Could these be mating Spendid Grasshoppers???

Update:  Cesar from Brazil sent us a link to Chromacris psittacus which is a very close match.  If Cesar is correct in either the species or genus, then we are wrong in the family since Encyclopedia of Life classifies them in Romaleidae.  We believe there may be an error someplace since BugGuide indicates the subfamily Romaleinae for Lubber Grasshoppers.  Perhaps these are actually Lubber Grasshoppers, though often Lubbers have atrophied wings.  There is an example with yellow antennae tips on Yakovlev alexey’s photos of FlickRiver.  You need to scroll down a bit.  Artour A’s Flickriver site gives a common name of Spendid Grasshopper or Brasilinho for the genus Chromacris.

Karl provides an identification
Hi Daniel, Julian and Cesar:
I believe they are definitely a species of Chromacris and the best information I have found for this genus is by Radclyffe and Carbonell (1982). There are only two species in Peru that have yellow-tipped antennae. Based on the yellow banding on the hind legs, this one appears to be C. icterus. The other species with yellow-tipped antennae is C. peruviana, coincidentally posted on your site by Peter Bruce-Jones on February 28, 2011. The main difference is that C. icterus has one yellow band on the hind tibia, while C. peruviana has two (I can’t see the tibia on either of the two mating individuals so I am assuming they are all the same). Regards. Karl

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Baby Jumping Stick
Location: Jaraguá, São Paulo, Brazil
January 7, 2012 6:32 am
May be of your interest these photos of this little jumping stick.
Sometimes, I see them walking with that hesitant manner, just like chameleons, going forward, going back a little bit and going forward again. Chameleons do this to confuse their preys, while proscopiidae do the same to confuse predators.
I love these guys, much people here in São Paulo never saw one in their lives, I think I’m blessed to live where I live.
In northeastern Brazil, a dry and warm place, you can find them like ants!
Signature: Cesar Crash

Jumping Stick

Hi Cesar,
This posting is a nice compliment to your earlier submission of a Jumping Stick Grasshopper from Brazil.