I have always had a strange admiration for all sorts of insects. Luckily my son shares my love of them. So when yesterday’s thunderstorms brought us a scared locust – a large (7 cm or more) representative of the grasshopper family, we were both excited.
Rob, my son, tried to feed it with some grass, although we had no idea if it likes it and were too lazy to look in the encyclopedia.
There are actually quite a lot of locusts this year in and around Yerevan – is it because of the rainy season? This area usually feels like a dry desert in summer, but the weather this year was strikingly different. It has been raining quite a lot and one can still see traces of green in areas, where last your there were only thorns and sand.
Whatever the reason, I always fancied catching one of those large, green grasshoppers and looking at them closely.
This one was fascinating – and although my photography skills didn’t allow me to make a better photo, here’s what he looked like (click to enlarge).
Mr. Grasshopper didn’t really like the glass-bulb we put it into, so even though I know locusts are damaging for my little garden, the decision was made to let it go. I’m not much of a gardener anyway, so let this little green fellow damage all it can. Good luck, Mr. Grasshopper!
wow, it’s kinda big one
Yep, that’s a big one !!
Poochigian
We have lots of that kinda grasshopper in our country Indonesia. We have even bigger one called “brown” grasshoppers (15-20cm).