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
Hi Grimfoot,
We have gotten images in the past of the Stone Grasshopper from Namibia. It is in the genus Trachypetrella.
We just realized you had another image with a different view.
This is not Trachypetrella (whose pronotum is flat, not keel-like), but rather a nymph of Lamarckiana or Lobosceliana (fam. Pamphagidae.)