A Revelation!

So I took a picture of this grasshopper I found in my yard on our Avocado tree and the first suggestion was Chondacris Rosea. But I searched it up and it had a different form and moreover had pink wings.

And then another ID was suggested by a user! Bird grasshoppers, Subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae.

I was skeptical at first cause I searched it up and found american bird grasshoppers and so I searched up Cyrtacanthacridae and found its Wikipedia page! It said:

"It includes species of locusts, short-horned grasshoppers that undergo phase polymorphism and are among the most important pests of sub-Saharan Africa;[4] they include the desert locust and the red locust,[3] with the related Bombay locust in Asia.[5]"

My eyes got to Bombay Locusts cause Bombay was something I'd heard in our region, being in a South East Asian country, and so I looked it up.

So many thing's lined up!

"The Bombay locust is found in India, Southwest Asia and Southeast Asia. Its range extends from India and Pakistan to Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia."

"Newly hatched Bombay locust nymphs are green with black spots. After they have grown and shed their skin several times they become more variable in colour. Some are plain green, and others are either orange-brown or green with a black spot at the base of each wingpad." This one I found may have been a plain green variant.

Also we've had some recent reports of locust swarm attacks in our country, The Philippines.

Apparently at this point this locust is acting as an individual which may be evidence that the locust population in our area is scarce.

In the end this is still part of the Cythacanthacridinae family and even goes by Cyrtacanthacris succincta as a synonym scientific name.

Posted on November 1, 2020 12:03 PM by