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- Member in this family are commonly called grasshoppers. All of them have large hind legs for jumping. They have short
antennae and short ovipositor.
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- "Hi, welcome to have a closer look on Grasshoppers."
Members in this family usually have their wings well developed. Usually they are
in camouflage colours but some of them are brightly
coloured.
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Males sing during day by rubbing legs against sides of their
forewings. Some species include a visual display of bright colours on legs or wings.
Females oviposit egg masses protected by a foamy substance, under the ground or
in plants. Most of them have an annual life cycle.
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- Grasshopper nymph, body length 15mm
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- Most species feed on grass. Some species feed on other vegetation including leaves, stems.
Some even feed on dead eucalyptus leaves. Some species, under some
conditions, will migrate in a dense swarms form, known as locusts, bring large
damage to the crop.
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- We
found quite a number of different species in this family. They are grouped in
four subfamilies and listed as follows;
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Subfamily Acridinae - Slant-faced and Band-winged
Grasshoppers
- Yellow-winged Locust
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- Photo: Keith Power, Toowoomba
- Gastrimargus musicus, subfamily Acridinae, body length 30mm
- Yellow-winged Locusts are easily found in Brisbane grassland. They prefer
grasses of medium height. When in flight, they show their back-banded yellow hind wings
with loud clicking noise. There are the red marking on their hind legs.
This species has green and brown forms. The second pictures was taken in
Karawatha Forest during early winter. A lot of them were found there at that
time.
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- Caledia
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- Caledia captiva, body length 25mm
- We took the above pictures in Alexandra Hill Bushland in mid summer. This
grasshopper is variable in colour and pattern, can be in green, brown to
greyish-brown. They make sound when in flight. They are easy encountered
and sometimes confused with the the locusts species. The major different are
their wings are not patterned and their hind legs tibia are not red as locust.
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- Froggatt's Buzzer
- Froggattina australis, body length 25mm
- When we walk on the bushland with short grass, it is common that every
step we walk, we hear a loud buzzing sound and see some insects jump and fly
away just above the ground. It is difficult to have a look on what is those insects. Most
likely they are the Froggatt's Buzzer grasshoppers.
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- Longheaded Grasshopper, Giant Green Slantface
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- Acrida conica, body length nymph 40,
adult 70mm
- This grasshopper is green in colour with brown strips on it head. Its head
is long and with short and flat antennae. Its pair of hind legs are
long and spindly. When disturbed, it opens its wings to make noise and shows
the pink-red abdomen. Click here for more
information.
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Subfamily Oxyinae - Moisture-loving Grasshoppers
- Creek Grasshopper
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- Bermius sp. Adult and last instars, body length
30mm
- We can easily found this Creek Grasshoppers along Bulimba Creek in Yugarapul
Park in Brisbane. They are usually hiding among the tall grasses or reeds next
to the water edge. The nymph and adult look the same except adult has fully
developed wings. The grasshoppers are green in colour with black strips on
both sides of the body from eyes to the wing tips. The top of the head and
thorax is brown in colour. More pictures and information in this page.
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Subfamily Catantopinae - Spur-throated Grasshoppers
- Stem Grasshopper, Common Adreppus
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- Adreppus fallax, body length 40mm
- We sometimes find them in Wishart bushland. They do not move until we come
very close. Then they hide at the other side of the tree trunk. More
information and pictures please click here.
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- Bark-Mimicking Grasshopper
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- Coryphistes ruricola, adult body length 40mm, nymph body length
25mm
- Bark-Mimicking Grasshoppers are hard to be be seen when they rest on the
tree trunk. They do not move until we come very close, then they hide at the
other side of the tree trunk. They look similar to another grasshopper
species Adreppus
fallax which also mimics the bark. This grasshopper species
has elongated antennae which is sword shaped and flattened at the bases. More
information and pictures please visit this page.
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- Gumleaf Grasshopper
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- Goniaea australasiae, nymph body length
15mm, adult body length 50mm
- The Gum Leaf Grasshopper is brown in colour, camouflages as a dry gum
leaf. It has the prominent arched crest on thorax. We can see the adult's orange
colour hindwings when it is flying. They are also known as Dead Leaf Grasshopper.
More pictures and information please click here.
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- Slender Gumleaf Grasshopper
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- Goniaea vocans, nymph body length 20mm, adult body length 50mm
- The Slender Gumleaf Grasshopper is brown in colour, camouflages as a dry
gum leaf. We can sometimes find them on the ground with the dry Gum tree
leaves when bushwalking in Eucalyptus forest. This species is easily
confused with the above species Gumleaf
Grasshopper Goniaea australasiae. Slender Gumleaf
Grasshopper has the carina, or the top edge of thorax, lower and less
pronounced, and has a distinct cut. More information and pictures please
click here.
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- Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper
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- Goniaea opomaloides, adult body length 40mm
- This is another species of grasshopper camouflages in dry gum leaf colour.
This species is smaller in size than the species we described above. They feed
on gum leaves on the forest ground. When we were bushwalking in the Eucalyptus
forest in White Hill, Brisbane, we usually disturbed one or two of them
for every step we walked. They jumped and flied to about a meter away and disappeared
in the the dry gum leaves background. More pictures and information
please click here.
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- Small Gumleaf Grasshopper
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- ? Goniaea sp., body length 40mm
- Pictures taken in Mt Cotton during mid summer. When it flied, we saw its
bright yellow-orange hind wings. This grasshopper look likes the Gum Leaf
Grasshopper above but smaller in size and has longer antenna with white tips.
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- Gumleaf Grasshopper with flat back
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- ? Goniaea sp., body length 40mm
- When we first saw this grasshopper, we thought it was the Slender Gumleaf Grasshopper.
Checked carefully we noticed that it had the flatten back then we
believed they are different species. Also notice that there were the velvet
mites attached on its antenna and legs.
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- Common Pardillana
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- Pardillana limbata, Nymph, 5th instars, body length 40mm, adult
body length 60mm
- We found this nymph hiding on tree under stem late afternoon in Karawatha
Park during early summer. It was orange-brown with blue dots. The colours was
some what different than the other Gumleaf Grasshoppers that we saw. We
collected the nymph and kept it in a jar, fed it with fresh gum leaves.
About two weeks later, it moulted and turned into an adults. More
information and pictures please click on here.
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- Wingless Grasshopper
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- Cedarinia sp., female and female, body length 35mm, 20mm
- Both female and male of this grasshopper have very tiny wings. The female
size is more than double of the male. The female is pale brown in colour. The
male is darker in colour and look quite different too. More
pictures and information please click here.
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- Handsome Macrotona Grasshopper
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- Macrotona mjoebergi, body length
nymph 20mm, adult 30mm
- The Common Macrotona Grasshopper can be found in eucalyptus forest associated
with Spinifex grass Triodia. The above pictures are taken in Alexandra
Hill Conservation Area. near Coolnwynpin Creek. More information and pictures
please click on here.
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- Short winged White-tips
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- ?Rectitropis sp, adult body length 20mm, nymph body length 15mm
- Found in Mt Cotton during mid-summer. The grasshopper is brown to dark
brown in colour, reassemble dry leaves on the ground. There are the creamy
white line on each side of its thorax. The inner surfaces of its hind legs are
black in colour. Their antennae are relatively long comparing with other
grasshopper species. There are the white rings near the tip of the antennae.
More information and pictures please visit this page.
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Subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae
- Giant Spur-throated Grasshoppers
- Giant Grasshopper, Giant
Valanga
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- Valanga irregularis, nymph length 50mm, female
length 90mm
- They also commonly known as Hedge Grasshopper. They have large compound eyes,
can see meters away. If you
approach near to them, they try to hide behind the leaf or branches,
will still peep at you by either one of their large eyes. We can find these grasshoppers on every plant in our back yard. They eat
almost all kinds of leaves. In the morning, we can find them sun bathing on
the trees. At that time they are easy to catch. After they have been warmed
up, they can jump very high and fly away quickly. Notice the spines on its
hind legs, if they are caught by birds or by spider web, they will attack
their predators by their hind legs. We have more information on this
grasshopper, please click here.
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- Spur-throated Locust, Giant Spur-throated Locust
- Photo: Keith Power, Toowoomba
- Austracris proxima
- This is one of the pest locust, forms swarms and can
reach plague status in Australia. They attack various crops like sorghum,
sunflower or soybean
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Others
We cannot identify the following grasshoppers. Please advise
if you know any of them.
- Tiny Creek Grasshopper
- ? sp., body length 10mm
- You may not see any insect in this picture. But if you watch it carefully,
you should see a grasshopper in the middle. We took this picture on
the water edge of a small pond at Bulimba Creek. This small fellow mimic the
wet sand and stone on the creek bank. Its hind legs are with green colour of
algae. Its thorax and forewings resemble the rocks. Sometimes it jumps onto
the water, it then flow back to the bank.
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- Black Wingless Grasshopper with green legs
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- ? sp., body length male 15mm, female 30mm
- We found this couple on ground next to a large gum tree in Karawatha
Forest during mid summer. Both male and female adults have undeveloped
wings. Their body is dark brown on the top, pale brown on each side with
creamy lines in between. Their three pairs of legs are bright green in
colour. We sometimes see these grasshoppers, but thought they were the nymph
because of their undeveloped wings.
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[ Up ] [ Giant Green Slantface ] [ Creek Grasshopper ] [ Stem Grasshopper ] [ Bark-Mmicing Grasshopper ] [ Gum Leaf Grasshopper ] [ Slender Gum Leaf Grasshopper ] [ Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper ] [ Common Pardillana ] [ Wingless Grasshopper ] [ Handsome Macrotona ] [ Short-winged White-tips ] [ Giant Grasshopper ] |