Category: Locust Eaters

Return of the Locust

Just over a year ago I wrote about a giant one-legged grasshopper who was eating the  yellow hibiscus flowers in my garden.

Amazingly he’s back! I think it’s the same grasshopper – he’s also missing a left leg and is a similar size, about 3 inches long. And he has the same pattern of dots around his neck.

Hang on dear.

This year he has brought a mate with him. Hope they’re not planning a large family.

They had just finished taking a big bite out of a leaf on my pitcher plant. I thought pitcher plants were supposed to eat insects, not the other way around.

Pitcher plant.

The Locust Eaters

 

CAUGHT IN THE ACT!

I have found out who has been eating the yellow hibiscus flowers in my garden.

Wanted - a one-legged locust. 

The culprit is a monster one-legged grasshopper (or is it a locust?) about 3 inches long. This guy eats half his body weight in food every day and since hibiscus petals don’t weigh too much he probably chomps his way through quite a few of them.

I wanted to swat him away or sell him to a deep-fried bug vendor but since he has already lost a leg I felt sorry for him and let him continue eating. Just as long as he doesn’t invite a swarm of his relatives to join in the feast.