They're Back

amazing colours

I've never seen a multi coloured grasshopper like this.

difficult to believe these insects are real, this one really looks like a toy!
You seem to have lots of varieties, are they always with you?

This is only the second time I've seen this kind in the 3 years I.ve lived here but they do come in droves. Even if I can't have the most colorful garden, I have some of the most colorful garden pests.

lol thats a great way to look at it :-)

He has a Cloak made of Steel! wings of fine wool,and legs made of Wicker, One of Natures Finest..I wouldn't want him in my garden tho :))

He looks beautiful!

I reckon he heard that your skunk had gone into the wild.
Thought you needed a new pet.

What a super duper insect! Fabulous colours looks like a toy!!

Youngdaisydee, LOL that was pretty funny......and Terratoonie, I don't need any new pets; especially the armored kind....

glad we don't have anything like this at home-but beautiful all the same!

What a creature! Wonderful colors but I don't want him near me!

Fantastic close-up Skippy ! What an amazing color palette they have ! Ours certainly pale in comparison !

Wow! 4 inches! That is a huge hopper! They must devestate the garden if it is a heavy year for them...

Actually the first time they came, they did strip my sweet brooms but this year my cats are chasing them and have kept them in check, so far. Time will tell.

At that size I can imagine that the cats would find them irresistible....they look almost "manufactured" somehow a perfect design...professionally coloured! A pest perhaps ...but one of nature's beauties!

Thanks for all your comments, it is an amazing grasshopper.

Lori,
the cats only played with them minimally. They didn't respond well enough to interest the cats so they went looking for lizards instead...

I know that the large brown grasshoppers I caught as a kid, would secrete from their mouth a brown sticky liquid (we used to call it tobacco juice!) that is supposedly bitter and discouraging for predators who would like to make a meal of them... perhaps that's why the cats lost interest.??

Could be..I hadn't thought about it...thinking back on my childhood, we used to call it tobacco juice, too....I haven't handled any of these guys so I don't know if they secrete anything or not....When they were here in 2006, my niece's kids caught them all the time..believe me as whiney as those two little girls were at the time, they would have wasted no time in complaining about anything that was yucky...

that is something else how amazing

i believegrasshoppers dont live long so actualy realy come of there own when there staple food ie grass is at its tallest which tallies up with this ones wonderfull colour. just plenty of food and plenty of hight.id say they are seasonal insects like dune bugs and a lot of insects.youve got to be herd and sean when you want to breed.id even stick my neck out and say this is a male.the grass hoppers are there all year but are smaller and the last thing they want to do is be noticeable.in late summer its do or die quite litteraly.

Hey, Nosey, the males and females of this species are the same color or at least it looks like it when they are mating????

ow your right oops lol if thats what youve sean lol.im afraid if you live near grass polly then you live near one kind of grass hopper or another

You are right....quite a variety of these critters everywhere in the world, I think

as long as theres grass just like your averadge hippy you will find grasshoppers lol

LOL....you are funny!

lol you got to have a laugh or you cry skippy