More Bug Love
February 21, 2010
Hi, WTB,
Thanks for the nice words about the very recent Cactus Longhorn Beetle photo.
Seeking ID help, please, for this pair of grasshoppers from late September in the foothills of the Santa Rita Moutains in southern Arizona at about 4,400 ft.  These are plentiful from mid- to late summer.
Denny Schreffler

Mating Spur Throated Grasshoppers

Hi again Denny,
Another gorgeous photograph.  At first we thought these might be mating Lubber Grasshoppers in the family Romaleidae.  Many members of the family are large Grasshoppers with bright coloration and   BugGuide does not picture anything quite like your specimens, though the Plains Lubber Grasshopper, Brachystola magna, looks similar.  We wonder if perhaps it might be a species of Lubber Grasshopper that is mentioned on BugGuide, but not pictured, Spaniacris deserticola.  According to information we unearthed on the internet, it is found in Mexico and Arizona, but alas, we cannot find any photos.  Perhaps an expert will be able to provide us with additional information.  As we continued to try to identify this gorgeous pair, we found a website on the Studies in nearctic desert sand dune Orthoptera that contained this information:  “Four decades of the author’s records indicate that Spaniacris deserticola (Bruner) is confined within the periphery of the Colorado Desert. It is usually found, near or within a few hundred feet of sea level, marking the shore line of ancient Lake Cahuilla (except for the Dale Lake record). The preferred host plant is Coldenia palmeri growing on the lower fringes of bajadas, with C. plicata on drift sand being second in preference. Spaniacris can tolerate sand and rock temperatures of 60 C. (believed to be a maximum for Colorado Desert life). Mating takes place at that and lower temperatures. When they are disturbed while on the tops of host plants, their flight is low and direct and of short duration, and they come to rest on the torrid soil for long periods of time. The female, much larger than the male, can sustain the male in flight while mating. The study verified spatial longevity of Spaniacris at Indio, California, after approximately 70 years and for the Kane Springs area after 52 years.“  That suggests that Spaniacris deserticola has developed wings, and that does not appear to be the case with your pair, which inclines us to believe that is not a correct identification.  We now believe they are probably Spur Throated Grasshoppers in the subfamily Melanoplinae which includes the gorgeous Painted Grasshopper that also has undeveloped wings in the adult for.  The bottom line on this is that we need professional assistance.

Eric Eaton writes back
Daniel:
Anyway, the pair of grasshoppers are Barytettix humphreysii cochisei, and the subspecies is in Bugguide already….They are in the spur-throated grasshopper subfamily Melanoplinae in the family Acrididae.  Neither gender has functional wings as adults.
More information, images here:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/171279
Thanks for giving me a sneak peek at this great image!
Eric

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Jumping stick from Patagonia, Argentina
February 7, 2010
Hi!
I´m sending pictures of this funny member of the Proscopidae family I found among dry sticks on coastal dunes near Las Grutas, Rio Negro, Patagonia.
It was a perfect stick and it would be impossible to find it without a small jump he did when I walk close to it.

Jumping Stick: Camouflaged

Still trying to find its genus or species identification
Even I´m reading several bugs site as much as possible, your site is the only one I´ve been visiting every day for years!
Thanks for your amazing work. You are sharing the most unvisible beauty of the Nature
Mirta

Jumping Stick

Happy New Year Mirta,
It is nice to hear from you again, and also to hear how much you appreciate our website.  This is an entirely new family for us, and we needed to do a bit of research to verify that it should be categorized with the grasshoppers on our website.  Like common grasshoppers, this Jumping Stick is in the Order Orthoptera, and the Grasshopper suborder Caelifera, but then the divergence happens.  The family Proscopiidae is new to us.  We crosschecked the taxonomy on Wikimedia with BugGuide to come to that conclusion.  The infraorder Acrididea includes the other grasshoppers,  but the superfamily Eumastacoidea does not seem to be represented with North American species, though BugGuide does have a mention of a fossilized member of Proscopiidae that was found in Brazil.  According to Encyclopedia.com, there are about 100 known species in the family and they are all endemic to South America.

Jumping Stick

Your photos are a wonderful addition to our website, and we eagerly await additional information either from you or our readership as to the genus and species of this fascinating creature.

Jumping Stick

Sticky-looking bug from UAE
January 10, 2010
I found this chill guy sitting on the porch one night in United Arab Emirates, in the more rural area. He looks like a sort of a mix between a praying mantis, a stick insect and a grasshopper (look at those long hind legs!), but I can’t really identify him with any sort of accuracy.
To scale, I’d say he was about two and a half to three inches long.
Maria
United Arab Emirates

Acrida bicolor

Hi Maria,
This unusual insect is a desert dwelling Grasshopper, Acrida bicolor, and we have not been successful in locating a common name.  We received some nice images of Acrida bicolor back in 2008 and we located an Israeli website with some nice photos of the species.

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Well camouflaged namibian grasshopper
November 29, 2009
Hi,
In january this year i found a strange grasshopper on a mountain in Kaokoland, Namibia. The mountain is located adjacent to Hoanib river, somewhere between Sesfontein and the border to Skeleton Coast NP. It is extremely well camouflaged, and moves like a chameleon (back and forth, back and forth, slowly moving forward), walking, not jumping. When it felt threatened it slowly leaned to one side until lying flat on one side on the ground, almost invisible. It also tried to fly, but only managed to do so for a very short time, and only about 15 centimetres. I guess the hopper is about 4-5 centimetres.
Do you have any idea what species I had the good luck to observe in this remote area?
Kind regards, Grimfoot
Kaokoland, Namibia

Stone Grasshopper

Hi Grimfoot,
We have gotten images in the past of the Stone Grasshopper from Namibia.  It is in the genus Trachypetrella.

Stone Grasshopper from Namibia

We just realized you had another image with a different view.

Stone Grasshopper from Namibia

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