How do I love thee, grasshopper? Let me count the ways.

I adore grasshoppers, and I love this time of year when practically every step in the grass sends dozens, if not hundreds, of grasshoppers launching themselves into the air like oil popping from a skillet, and landing with the rippling sound of soft ticks in the brush. The comical dance as they cling to a blade of grass and shift around it to quickly orient themselves and hide with just their feet and legs visible, sticking out from behind the leafy shield.

I love how baby grasshoppers are just tiny, big-headed versions of the adults, with itty bitty wing buds (no awkward wormy larval stage for these incomplete metamorphosizers!). Their complex chewing mouthparts with paired, segmented palpi like movable whiskers under their chin; the modest short antennae; the stout, shield-like pronotum behind the head; the cleverly articulated segments of their legs with the small cushiony pads comprising their feet (or tarsi); those oversized, inscrutable compound eyes. 

A spiracle on the thorax circled in blue(other spiracles
are found alongside the length of the abdomen).

Their respiration! They breathe directly through holes in their sides called spiracles, and the air is distributed internally via tubes called tracheae--none of this inefficient breathing and eating through the same orifices, or mingling nutrient and gaseous circulation in the same system, like certain mammals. 

"I just stumbled upon this carcass
and couldn't resist the free
protein, I swear!"

I've always been partial to herbivores, and try to overlook the occasional incidents of cannibalism and fondly eye the holey, chewed leaves in my garden as evidence that it is a home and refuge for grasshoppers, caterpillars, and other small neighbors. The piggy-back style mating, with a much-smaller male clinging to the back of the larger female, followed by the female tidily stowing her eggs in the ground, often via a crack in the pavement.

I've found it difficult to reliably attach definite names to my grasshopper friends; though they don't usually require minute examination of their genitalia to determine species like some other insects, there are a wide variety of grasshoppers with varying colors even within the species, and small characteristics that can be seen without microscopic examination--but are not always easily visible from a candid photo snapped in situ. 

Showing off the spur.

Early on in the dichotomous key presented in the Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States, for example, there is a branch asking whether the specimen has a "Distinct conical spine between forelegs" which I'm sure is easily spotted when you have one immobilized in a specimen jar, but is not readily visible from most normal angles of viewing. Imagine my delight when a big Differential Grasshopper posed with its underside clearly visible through a gap in the Wild Quinine to which it clung--including that spur (or "prosternal spine")! I'd read about spur-throated grasshoppers for years but never actually seen the spur until now. 

The subfamily of Band-winged Grasshoppers, too, have distinctive features in the coloration and patterns of their wings--if you have the luxury of spreading them out and examining them. Try as I might to catch one in flight, the best I've managed is a blur of dark wings with pale edges (save the one memorable Carolina Grasshopper caught mid-spring in his alluring courtship display). 

Now Slant-faced Grasshoppers--there's something I can work with! I think....

Sources/Additional Resources and Reading:

• Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States
• How Does a Grasshopper Breathe? (Explained)
• Grasshoppers of Wyoming and the West
• The Ethical Grasshopper Musings on the fable of the Ants and the Grasshopper
  
  
  
  

August Miscellany

Hello there!

This time of year there is no shortage of things to see along the Greenway--in fact, there is so much to see that I often end up with dozens of photos of interesting sights that don't quite make the cut for their own post, either because the photo is less compelling than others, or I'm unable to confidently ID the subjects in order to describe them appropriately...so I thought I'd collect them in a late-summer medley.

Easily overlooked in lawns and elsewhere, Red Clover leaves have striking variegation.

A tattered butterfly--a Comma or a Question Mark (I think a Comma based on the descriptions of the dots on the forewing from this website).

The teeny tiny white flowers of Hemp Dogbane--just a few millimeters wide--make these long (4"-8"), skinny seed pods!

Prickly Ash (Zanthoxylum americanum) is actually a member of the citrus family and not closely related to ash trees, which belong to the olive family!

White berries of Dogwood.

A little hairy-legged fly (?) visiting Ratibida pinnata flowers.

Smooth, round buds of Prairie Dock flowers.

Unidentified inchworm on Purple Coneflower.

So many August bees, on so many yellow flowers!

Purple Coneflower getting a little crazy, sprouting ray florets all over the place.

Compass Plant leaves curl around its tall stem.

Documenting Nature Along the Greenway

Grapevine Beetle, submitted
and identified via iNaturalist

Do you ever wonder at the variety and diversity of species found along the Greenway (or other natural spaces around the city)? Did you know that iNaturalist has "Places" that show all the observations submitted within a defined geographic area? You can view by Johnson County, Iowa City, or various Places of Interest within the city. 

There are three such places for the Greenway:  Sycamore Trail, which includes the land around the trail from Grant Wood Elementary to the Lehman Avenue extension; Sycamore Wetlands, which is limited to the city-owned wetland cells; and Sycamore Greenway, which includes both the trail and the city-owned wetlands. You can also visit the Places created for Ralston Creek, Scott Park, Ryerson's Woods, and many other natural spaces in and around town. 

These Points of Interest automatically collect any observations within their boundaries, so if you use iNaturalist to identify a plant or insect along the Greenway, your observation is added to the data! Some places, like Ashton Prairie, even have annual BioBlitz events where volunteers document huge numbers of observations together on a single day.

Although it's not technically a "Point of Interest" I recently visited McCollister Boulevard and noted a wide variety of plants and insects on the short stretch between Sycamore and South Gilbert; those observations were duly uploaded to iNaturalist and added to the observations of others in the same area. You can zoom around and browse each point: blue for birds, mammals, herps, and other non-insects, red for insects and arachnids, pink for fungi, and green for plants. 

It's an easy way to both learn about the things you see along the Greenway and elsewhere, and also contribute data documenting the variety of life that any area supports.