Hmm.. now what? Curious case of the confused grasshopper scratching its head

By JESSICA SATHERLEY

What's going on? This grasshopper adopts the look of a bemused human as it sits atop a Devil's-bit Scabious flower for Matt Cole's photo

Raising a foreleg to its head as it sits atop a flower, this grasshopper appears somewhat confused about what to do next.
Looking like a human scratching its head, the humorous pose was captured by amateur photographer Matt Cole, 40, in Lount Nature Reserve, Leicestershire.
Matt, from Ashby de la Zouch, said: 'It's always great to photograph an animal or insect doing something slightly unusual.

'I was very pleased to capture a sharp image of it in this pose.
'I was on the lookout for interesting insects when I spotted it and followed for a few minutes as it jumped from one perch to another.
'Eventually it settled on this Devil's-bit Scabious flower and allowed me to set up my tripod in front of it.
'As I was watching through my camera viewfinder it briefly lifted its front leg.
'It was starting to spit with rain so it could have been brushing a water drop off its head or eye.

'Either that or it is scratching its head in bemusement, wondering what on earth I'm doing there.'
He added: 'You can put a lot of effort into fieldcraft, technique and composition but sometimes you need a bit of luck to give an image that something extra.'

source: dailymail

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They were tickled pink: Seven-year-old friends discover pair of rare coloured grasshoppers in fire-devastated nature reserve

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Genetic abnormality: The very rare pink grasshopper found on Dersingham Fen by Noah Batteley and Meg Willis


Two little pals are tickled pink after finding two rare grasshoppers while on a ramble.

Noah Battelley and Meg Willis, both seven, spotted the inch-long, hot pink beasts at Dersingham Fen, close to their homes in west Norfolk.

It is just three months since fires tore through the nature reserve, destroying several acres of undergrowth.

Noah said: 'We were looking around for other grasshoppers in the woods near where the fire was. We spotted them then. There were two of them.'

Meg added: 'We kept them because Noah was having a sleepover at my house.


Naturalists in training: Noah Batteley (7) and Meg Willis (7) were out hunting for normal grasshoppers when they made the startling discovery


'I've got a bug hunting kit with a little jar and when Noah's mum came to over to pick Noah up they took one with them.'

Noah's proud mother, Helen, said the youngsters, who both go to Sandringham and West Newton Primary School, were excellent insect hunters.

Mrs Battelley said: 'From when Noah was about five, we started finding things he'd put in his pockets.

'We've found crabs and things like little dead birds.'

Expert Matt Shardlow, of conservation group Buglife, said pink grasshoppers were a "genetic abnormality". 'For some reason you get some which are pink, where they'd normally be green or brown,' he said.



And here's how one should look normally... A Meadow Grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus


'If you go out looking at grasshoppers a lot, you'd expect to see one or two a year. In terms of percentage, it's a tiny proportion of the number of grasshoppers - less than one per cent.'

A number of different grasshoppers sometimes come in pink versions. 'If it's a pale-ish pink, it's likely to be a meadow grasshopper,' said Mr Shardlow. Other species, like the field grasshopper, quite commonly have pink versions.

'It's part of the natural genetics of these populations but we don't know why.

'We don't know of any evolutionary advantage being pink would give you as a grasshopper.'

source: dailymail

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That's a bit too much crunch in my salad: Woman finds live giant Egyptian grasshopper in her bag of greens

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

Creepy crawly: This giant Egyptian grasshopper was found alive in a bag of supermarket salad


A Sussex woman's lunch almost became a Bushtucker Trial this week when she discovered a live giant grasshopper in a salad bag.

The likes of Alison Hammond and Kayla Collins got close to some creepy critters during Sunday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get me Out Of Here! but an unnamed Brighton woman had a bigger shock after picking up a healthy lunch from a branch of Tesco in Lewes.

The unnamed shopper was about to sit down for lunch on the East Sussex coast when she found the three-inch insect alive and well among her bag of leaves.


Surprise lunch: The Lewes branch of Tesco where a shopper is believed to have bought a salad bag that contained a live grasshopper


The insect had survived a trip from Egypt in the salad bag before it gave the woman a surprise at the dining table.

Showing admirable calm under pressure - especially as her appetite had been undoubtedly spoiled - the woman passed on the creature to the RSPCA, who received the animal on condition of anonymity for the shopper.

The grasshopper - which the National History Museum has verified as Egyptian - has since been re-homed it at nearby Drusillas Zoo, where it was received by spider and insect expert Angela Hale earlier this month.


Harmless: Insect expert Angela Hale said the grasshopper is flourishing in its new home


'To discover a grasshopper in this way is incredibly unusual,' she admitted. 'Although it may give someone a bit of a shock, these insects are completely harmless.

'The grasshopper is in excellent health and settling into her new home, where we hope she will be very happy.'


Appetising: Alison Hammond and Kayla Collins taking on a disgusting Bushtucker Trial on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!


Ms Hale was able to identify that the grasshopper had made it to the south coast having travelled all the way from Egypt thanks to its distinctive vertically striped eyes, which are particular to this breed of insect.

The 6.5cm insect is believed to be a fully developed female, with a length more common to the fairer sex of the species, and fully developed wing span and colouration.

Ms Hale also received confirmation from the National History Museum that the bug was an Egyptian giant grasshopper, after the London institution viewed pictures of the insect.

A Tesco spokesman said that incidents such as these were 'extremely rare' and offered his apologies to the customer in question.

'All of our products go through quite a lot of processes before it reaches the customer,' he added.

'Incidents like this are extremely rare although an unpleasant surprise is something that can happen on very, very rare occasions.'




source: dailymail

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