Monday, August 27, 2012

[jules' pics] Green Hoppity Monsters

Back to the normality of sea-level living - cute green grasshoppery crickety things are hopping around the neighbourhood, enjoying the unremitting heat of summer.

grasshopper or cricket
What cool back leg patterns.

But then I found a monster: AAaggggh!

Help help help - monster!!

I think it may be a shouryou-batta (ショウリョウバッタ)/ Acrida cinerea antennata/ oriental long-headed locust, but it looks rather more colourful than most of those I found online. I guess from its massive size (10cm+?) that it is a girl. I'd hate to meet the preying mantis that would gobble it up for tea.

The top photo is from my D90, and the lower one from the RX100. As a special treat, for those of you interested in the new RX100, I also took the monster's photo with my D90 (see here).



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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 8/27/2012 01:51:00 PM

3 comments:

crf said...

Acrida conica

jules said...

crf: acrida conica seems to be Australian, whereas acrida cinerea appears on Japanese websites, and is referred to as Japan's largest grasshopper.

andrewt said...

Acrida conica is supposed to be this side of Wallace's Line only, so shouldn't be turning up in Japan but you can't be certain - we have a Japanese/Chinese wasp in our backyard that was introduced to Sydney a few years ago.

Its doesn't look conica to me for what little thats worth.

I believe its a female and the little projection at the end of its abdomen is its ovipositor - but I've been very wrong about this sort of thing before.