Green Milkweed Locust from South Africa

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insect ID
Hi I’ve recently posted a picture of, what I think is a grasshopper, on Flickr, it’s so striking it got me wondering what it was. I’ve been unable to find any similar images on the internet. This was taken in Wilderness, South Africa, on the south coast, it was taken in January 2000. I would guess it was 50-50mm long. I caught this monster by the side of a track in South Africa. Took me a long time to convince myself it was real. Be interested if anyone can identify it. Thanks for any help.
Regards
Rob Hamblett

Hi Rob,
What a stunning specimen, but alas, we don’t recognize it. Perhaps one of our readers will. Sure enough, Eric Eaton wrote in: “The lime green and black grasshopper is in the family Pyrgomorphidae. Don’t know what species, though. Perhaps Phymateus leprosus, and a nymph rather than an adult. Eric”

Update (02/04/2006)
Phymateus leprosus
Dear Bugman:
About the lime green & black grasshopper: I have to agree with Eric Eaton that the grasshopper is probably P. leprosus, sometimes referred to as Maphyteus leprosus. I have linked a great photo of an adult found on the web. The two large “knobs” at the front of the thorax are diagnostic, i believe, of P. leprosus. The nymph in question also exhibits these structures.
Chad Lensbower

7 thoughts on “Green Milkweed Locust from South Africa”

  1. Hello all It is 8 Jan 2015 I have 3 milkweed grasshoppers currently in my garden! We live on a plot in the South of Johannesburg I was also stumped but so glad to find your website with the info on it

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  2. Hello. I currently have about 10 milkweed grasshoppers in my garden and it looks as if they are eating up all my plants. How do you get rid of them?

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  3. Found about 50 on my back wall all bunched up together. Gave them a nice good spray with a can of pesticide. Took them some time to die but good riddance !!!!!!

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  5. Hi Rob 🙂

    It looks like a nymph Green Milkweed Locust.
    They are the only large locusts I have seen in Wilderness in the Heights area.
    Sometimes they have a chunky reddish mantle instead of green.

    Reply

  6. Hi Rob 🙂

    It looks like a nymph Green Milkweed Locust.
    They are the only large locusts I have seen in Wilderness in the Heights area.
    Sometimes they have a chunky reddish mantle instead of green.

    Reply

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