Subject: Found in Seville
Geographic location of the bug: Seville, Andalusia
Date: 10/22/2018
Time: 04:30 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Found this mighty bug flapping around in my office late one night. For reference my middle finger is a shade over 3.5 inches, so this rather sturdy grasshopper is close to 3 inches in length. I believed grasshoppers to prefer open plains to city centre life. I’ve certainly never seen one this large before.
How you want your letter signed: Ben
Dear Ben,
We believe we have identified your Grasshopper as an Egyptian Grasshopper, Anacridium aegyptum, thanks to The Insects of Southern Spain where it states: “Egyptian Grasshoppers are sometimes mistaken for locusts, but the diagnostics for the former are the vertically striped eyes and the pronuptum, the shield type shape behind the head … is distinctly ridged, like plates of armour.” Nightengale Trails has some nice images as does TrekNature.