lovely red legs Melanoplus femurrubrum...female

great photo Lori...

Beautiful shots Lori!

Another fantastic photo Lori!

Is it their Breeding season then Lorrie? Does this have a short span of life?
Sorry, for firing questions at you...but i am curious to know...

From what I've read this is one very interesting creature.... it seems that it is both grasshopper and locust.... the difference being that the locust has the swarming gene and in the grasshopper it is latent. There were once swarms of locust in North America but it seems that agriculture and cultivation may have changed their breeding grounds and their numbers are dispersed and as a result, no swarming. Who knows what the future may bring though? the way things are changing it's hard to say whether the locust may swarm again. As a kid I used to catch the large grasshoppers because they would "spit tobacco juice" on your hand. This is a sticky brown liquid that tastes terrible to birds, just a natural defense. their sound is part of the summer "stitch" ...if you walk through a field the zips, buzzes, whirrs, of various insects in the long grass is like a new wave symphony!

Lol! That brought back memories, Lori! We used to say that they "made molasses" when we put them in jars! Thank goodness we weren't brave enough to taste it!!!

LOL... speaking of the ideas of our youth... My sister took a dare to eat a fried grasshopper... apparently in some parts of the world they are a deep fried delicacy! YUCK! I could never get past the idea of what I was crunching! As to tasting the molasses/tobacco juice...hahahahaaa... that was the subject of a few "I dare ya!'s....

Yuck! We saw chocolate covered ants as a novelty in a grocers years ago - just not for me - I can't do the bug thing at all. Taking photos of them is helping me get over some of my bug phobia, but it does happen that this brave photographer looses it when they decide to move toward me quickly, Lol!!

I've had a couple of lovely spiders in the garden...They are my therapy items! I can marvel at their usefullness and enjoy their wonderful colours and purpose in the garden...but the creepy factor makes me VERY respectful of their space~! I have a harder time with snakes...but I'm working on that too!