This week’s find is a photo of one of a range of colourful foam grasshoppers that occur in Africa. If threatened, foam grasshoppers can produce a toxic foam that can be fatal to even a large animal that is foolish enough to eat one.
All foam grasshoppers sport vivid colours as it pays to advertise in colour that they are dangerous so as to deter potential predators. Their toxicity derives from their diet, from the poisons in plants, such as Milkweed, that they eat.
The colouration of the foam grasshoppers (all members of the Pyrgomorphidae family) is incredibly variable. I think the one I photographed in our garden is an immature Dictyophorus spumans (Koppie foam grasshopper). Grasshoppers in this family can grow to be as large as 8 centimeters (3 inches) in length.
Posted by Carol
August 27, 2018 at 11:48 am
Yikes! Who knew color could be dangerous! Great capture, hope u used a zoom!
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August 27, 2018 at 8:26 pm
Thanks Tina. Yes I did use a zoom, but they are very placid grasshoppers. They only produce foam defensively if threatened (I have never seen one do this) and unless one swallows one they do us no harm! Their colour is a useful warning ☺ I did not know about the colour theme for the challenge when I coincidentally did this post!
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August 27, 2018 at 2:04 am
Another amazing and, yes, charming critter! Though I surely wouldn’t want to eat it. Thanks for the lesson. I’m learning quite a bit about your wildlife here. Always fun! 😀
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August 27, 2018 at 5:14 am
It is lovely to share ☺
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August 25, 2018 at 12:18 am
This fellow looks like one tough customer! 😉
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August 25, 2018 at 8:21 pm
Despite appearances, perhaps because they are usually left alone, they seem to be quite placid.
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August 24, 2018 at 1:09 pm
Never seen this species at our spot. Nice capture.
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August 25, 2018 at 8:19 pm
Thanks Ark. Surprising that you don’t see foam grasshoppers in your region. For some reason the previously common “garden locust” I see very rarely these days.
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August 25, 2018 at 8:26 pm
I have seen quite a few different sorts, including the very colourful Elegant Grasshopper, but not this one …. yet!
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August 26, 2018 at 7:27 pm
Although I have seen it elsewhere I have not seen the well-named Elegant Grasshopper here!
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August 26, 2018 at 7:40 pm
I read that a local tribe eats them! I prefer chips to be honest!
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August 26, 2018 at 7:45 pm
Me too! I am surprised that these grasshoppers are edible.
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August 26, 2018 at 7:41 pm
https://attaleuntold.wordpress.com/2017/12/28/photographic-review-2017-its-just-not-cricket-even-when-it-is/
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August 26, 2018 at 7:47 pm
Thanks for the link to your great pics of this amazing grasshopper.
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August 26, 2018 at 7:50 pm
It is the Pedi tribe that eat/ate them. I knew I had read it somewhere.
https://www.sabisabi.com/wildfacts/elegant-grasshopper/
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August 26, 2018 at 7:59 pm
Amazing. I’d rather have my porridge bland!
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August 26, 2018 at 8:00 pm
Me too, Carol!
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August 24, 2018 at 10:27 am
what a beauty.
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August 25, 2018 at 8:17 pm
Thanks Nikki. I think so too!
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August 24, 2018 at 6:57 am
He’s quite safe. I’m not remotely tempted to eat him (her?). But he looks amazing. Do they live alone, or in noisy groups? Have you heard that tourists to the Var in France are demanding the cicadas there be killed off, on account of the noise they make? *sigh*
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August 25, 2018 at 8:17 pm
I have seen very young grasshoppers in groups before they disperse. They are, however, completely silent. I had not heard about tourists wanting to kill cicadas because they are ‘noisy’! How bizarre is that! What about noisy tourists partying, riding quad bikes, etc, etc??
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August 24, 2018 at 3:54 am
I must say that grasshoppers of any size or color creep me out.
These are literally pretty poison!
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August 25, 2018 at 8:01 pm
Glad that you can see the pretty facet despite finding grasshoppers creepy!
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August 24, 2018 at 1:41 am
I will readily admit to being scared out of my wits by large grasshoppers and armoured crickets. Snakes, spiders, scorpions and elephants do not bother me in the least, but even just the thought of one of these jumping into my neck has me on the edge of fainting… 😀
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August 25, 2018 at 7:59 pm
I was not aware that anyone finds grasshoppers scary. Large subterranean crickets (Parktown prawns) I can see can be alarming, but I hadn’t thought about large grasshoppers in that light before. Hope that the photo of the grasshopper was tolerable though!
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August 26, 2018 at 2:27 am
The photo is lovely Carol! It provides a close-up view I will never have in real life! 😀 😀 😀
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August 26, 2018 at 7:27 pm
🙂
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August 23, 2018 at 10:29 pm
Yikes. I’ve never heard of these before. Another reason not to include grasshoppers in my diet.
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August 25, 2018 at 7:47 pm
🙂
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August 23, 2018 at 9:36 pm
Beautiful!
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August 25, 2018 at 7:46 pm
Thanks! Its colouring is most striking.
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