A Pink Grasshopper! - Observation of the Week, 2/17/19

This erythristic Green-striped Grasshopper, seen in the United States by pufferchung, is our Observation of the Day!

In the grand tradition of Observations of the Week depicting organisms the observer was not looking for, Michelle’s (@pufferchung) target species of the day was not an insect but a plant. “Since I was looking for something that grows on the ground and it's ‘small and red’, that's how I found the ‘pink grasshopper’,” she tells me.

iNat user Todd Fitzgerald (@oddfitz) saw her observation and commented “almost positive it’s a Green-Striped Grasshopper with erythrism which exaggerates the natural red pigments,” and other users such as @sambiology and @brandonwoo (the latter is iNat’s top IDer of orthopterans) concurred and Todd reached out to me and let me know what a cool find this was.

Erythrism, as Todd notes, exaggerates the red pigments of an organism, and is actually a well-known but not entirely common trait in some orthopterans, particularly katydids. This species typically has green or brown coloration (see photos here) and ranges from Canada to Costa Rica.

“Photography gives me an appreciation for the world that we live in,” says Michelle (above).  “ [And] nature photography also takes me to outdoors more. I've been to many Texas state parks, natural/nature preserves and hiking trails. I want to see and experience things we sometimes take for granted. It provides me with some wonderful memories and photos that I can share with my instagram/facebook friends.”

Michelle tells me that someone on Facebook suggested to her the iNaturalist community could help identify her finds, so she started posting her nature photos on iNat as well. “Using iNaturalist gives me hope that some of the things people find aren't as rare as we think they are, they're just hidden and could lead to more nature conservation efforts in different places that they didn't think to look.”

- by Tony Iwane.

- Think that green coloration in katydids is a dominant trait? You might have to reconsider.

- @silversea_starsong’s Amazing Aberrants project is a great collection of unusually colored organisms.

Posted on February 18, 2019 10:22 PM by tiwane