Now that’s what I call green

11 Replies

I am no expert on grasshoppers, we hear them singing here on summer nights, and when we mostly see them they jump out of the way pretty quickly. And they are usually brown. bug1 24-7-14This one was different… bright green. bug2 24-7-14bug3 24-7-14After perusal of our Insects book, I decided he was a Leptophyes Punctatissima from the Katydids family of bush crickets and long-horned grasshoppers. Except his horns were short, as if he’d had an accident. He was the only bright green grasshopper in our book and, apart from the shorter antennae, he was identical to the photograph. Below is what Leptophyes Punctatissima looks like, according to Orthoptera,com.

[photo: orthoptera.org.uk]

[photo: orthoptera.org.uk]

I didn’t realize it is the males that sing to attract mates, they use a file-and-scraper system at the base of their forewings. Their song sounds rather like their name Katydids – ‘Kate-she-did’. bug4 24-7-14bug5 24-7-14Click here to read more about Leptophyes Punctatissima  at Orthoptera,com.

5 to remember
un/una expert/a – an expert
el saltamonte – the grasshopper
normalmente – usually
el examen – the perusal
como – as if

11 thoughts on “Now that’s what I call green”

  6. Pingback: A big fellow, or not | Notes on a Spanish Valley

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