Subject: Large strange ”bug”?
Location: Taxco, Mexico
August 3, 2012 12:55 pm
My friend was in Taxco, Mexico last month. She heard a whirring sound and saw this.She was photographing an old church…She says it was very large, (about 10 inches long)and when she noticed it and raised her camera it flew backwards, still facing her.She said the legs were limp, but when it noticed her attention they became more active, and ”filled out”. We are stumped! I thought maybe a large cicada?
Signature: Nina
looks more like a grasshopper.
Hi there, sorry to “bug” 😉 you but with transparent wings? hovering above that little cabinet? granted it was a quick encounter, but Margaret is a very practical person, not given to exaggeration, she said it was very large.
best, Nina
Dear Nina,
The photo is of very low resolution and the hovering bug is very tiny in the frame. We based our guess, and that is all it is is a guess, on the apparent size and shape of the hind legs as well as the size that was indicated. There are very large Grasshoppers in Mexico and this Tropidacris species from our archive is four inches long which would give it an 8 inch wingspread. Here is another letter from our archive that indicates a length of 20 centimeters. We based our response on the size indicated, the shape of the legs and the location in Southern Mexico. We might be wrong, but we have no other guesses as to what this might be. Here is a National Geographicphoto of locusts in flight in Mexico. Locust is a common name for Grasshoppers that swarm. This photo should give you some idea of what a Grasshopper will look like in flight.
