Location: Northern Cochise County in southern AZ.
November 12, 2012 9:05 am
What is this handsome approximately two inch long grasshopper? Why doesn’t she/he have wings? Is she/he a juvenile? She/he was found in a dry wash eating some yummy green leaves on 11/9/12 and showed a surprising lack of shyness as I got close to take the photos.
We quickly identified this as a Plains Lubber Grasshopper, Brachystola magna, thanks to the excellent photos on BugGuide. This is a very large, flightless species, and we believe your individual is a female. According to BugGuide: “Large, colorful grasshopper. Flightless. On the central and southern Great Plains, individuals reach their largest size, and are more often (especially females) predominantly green. In the Southwest they tend to be smaller, more varied in coloration, but most often predominantly brown.” BugGuide also has this interesting historical note: “Important in the history of genetics, this species has large chromosomes, easily observed in the early days of cell biology.” The citation is linked to this Genetics Society of America online article.