Green-Legged Grasshopper

IUCN Conservation Status: INSUFFICIENT DATA

I was startled by this large grasshopper

Green-Legged Grasshopper - Behind the Photo

Whenever I'm out for a hike, I try to keep my camera with me and in easy access. That is the start of the story of how I took this photo of a green-legged grasshopper. Jill and I were out for a hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were doing our first hike of a three day weekend of hiking. We had initially planned to do a reasonably long warm-up hike on day one of about 8 miles, but we ended up extending it to over 14 miles.

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As we were pressing up the ascent in the last mile of the hike, I was startled by this large grasshopper that had made its way to the middle of the trail. I immediately noticed the vibrant and unique color of its body. It reminded me of the green that my grandparents' house is colored. (It's hard to forget that color after having spent two weeks one summer helping to prep it for painting by scraping every square inch of the exterior of their house!)

This green-legged grasshopper initially paused in its journey through the world when it saw me standing in front of it. I took the brief pause to reach into the hip belt pocket of my backpack (easy-access), and I turned the camera on as I maneuvered it into position. One thing that I love about the Olympus Tough TG-5 is how close you can get to your subject when in macro mode. The subject can be within one inch of the camera lens, allowing you to capture incredible detail.

When I am trying to photograph an animal, insect, or anything else that might be a bit camera shy, I tend to take a photo as soon as I have the subject in focus. Even if I don't yet have the angle or closeness that I'm ultimately aiming for, I don't want to miss photographing an interesting creature. With this grasshopper, that was an excellent strategy. As soon as I took my first photo, he leapt up to a branch. I tried to photograph it there, but the photo was washed out by the bright sky. I was fortunate that it hopped back to the ground to allow me to take this photo.

About Green-Legged Grasshoppers

The scientific name of the green-legged grasshopper is Melanoplus viridipes, which comes from the Latin viridis meaning green and pes meaning foot. Another common name for this insect is the green-legged spur-throat grasshopper. Like most grasshopper species, the males are smaller than the females. These particular grasshoppers top out at around 18.5mm in length for males and 25.5mm in length for females.

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Did you know that grasshoppers have ears on their abdomen instead of on their head?! Green-legged grasshoppers are known to have short wings. The wings typically only measure half the size of their bodies.

Green-legged grasshoppers have short wings

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