These young nymphs will go through ~5 instars/molts
Wild Boyz Photography featured the adult eastern lubber grasshopper back in 2021. The adult eastern lubber grasshoppers are yellow and they have wings
This is a photograph of a nymph stage eastern lubber grasshopper, which does not have wings. They are all black with yellow, orange, or red markings (yellow in this case). In some areas the patters are ornate, such as the coloring on the back legs. These young nymphs will go through ~5 instars/molts before they are in their adult stage. By the time this happens it is generally April or May.
This photograph was taken in Big Bend National Park in western Texas. Our previous adult eastern lubber grasshopper photograph was taken in south Florida. That is quite the range for this small grasshopper. They are known by different names in different places. Eastern lubber grasshoppers are also commonly called “Florida lubbers”, “Georgia thumpers”, “potato bugs”, “cottonhead hoppers”, “devil’s horse”, and “graveyard grasshoppers”.
What is a lubber? A lubber is someone who is lazy and clumsy. It is an old English word that fits this slow-moving grasshopper well. Although they have wings, eastern lubber grasshoppers do not fly. Because of their large bodies, they cannot jump very far. However, they are great climbers which allows them to climb trees to reach the leaves they consume.
Their slow-moving nature makes them an easy subject for photography. You would think this would also make them easy targets for predators. However, eastern lubber grasshoppers taste bad and they use their bright body coloration as a warning to would be predators (this is called aposematism). There are a few predators that will go after the eastern lubbers, including a few species of birds, amphibians, and reptiles.
Eastern lubber grasshoppers taste bad and they use their bright body coloration as a warning to would be predators
Did you know?
- Female eastern lubber grasshoppers are usually larger than the males.
- Eastern lubber grasshoppers have been documented eating more than 100 plant species.
- Females typically lay a pod of around 60 eggs. They can lay between one to five of these egg pods per season.
- Eastern lubber grasshoppers can make a hissing sound to scare off potential predators.
- Eastern lubber grasshoppers are not poisonous or dangerous to humans. However, they can release a smelly, dark, foamy substance from their thorax as a deterrent. In fact, they can spray this concoction up to a few inches in an effort to escape predators.
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