Approving Grasshopper Approves
Posted on September 6, 2015 Posted by John Scalzi 19 Comments
Not only is this grasshopper pretty chill, it totally looks like it’s giving me a “thumbs up.” Thanks, chill grasshopper! You’re pretty awesome yourself!
This is all I’ve got for you today. But by golly, isn’t it enough?!?
It’s shortly after 8:00 AM on the west coast, and I cannot think of a cheerier photo to kick off my Sunday morning!
Mr Scalzi! Looks like the poor thing is stuck in a spiderweb. Did you save it?
Claudio Morais:
It was not. It was just hanging out on my window.
When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I have become the master. And I totally approve of what you’ve done in the interim! Good job, Po!
I’m afraid you’ve made an error here, John.
Notice how the tarsus (next to last leg segment) is oriented, bringing the pretarsus (last leg segment) around so that its back is faced towards you. Also notice how it’s the center claw, not the edge, that is extended upward from the pretarsus.
What I’m saying is, that grasshopper gave you the finger.
Cool shot!
Robyn, As if a grasshopper can reliably tell a finger from a thumb!? Funny, though, even so!
It looks like that grasshopper was caught mid-hop. Is that a blade of grass I see that grasshopper hopping?
At first glance, I wasn’t sure that I recognized that species of grasshopper, but my friend Katy did.
How cool is that?!
Heh. Very nice, Kenneth.
I’d be hopping up and down in the grass if I ever took a photo like that.
I’m green with envy!
Don’t think it is a grasshopper (Acrididae), not with those very long antennae. Maybe a bush-cricket (Tettigoniidae)?
Thumb or middle finger, the little hopper had a message to convey, and did so.
Cheerful photo, John!
A little hard to tell from the angle of the photo (at least for a rank amateur entomologist like me) but I’m also reasonably sure that’s a katydid, not a grasshopper. I had never heard the term bush-cricket before, but that’s apparently also a name for them. Maybe a regionalism?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tettigoniidae
Yes, katydid is a regional name used by our american cousins for the insects that we English-speaking Europeans call bush-crickets
Mary Oliver wrote a wonderful poem about a grasshopper. You might like it.
Ask it just exactly WHAT Katy did. They’re always saying that, but they never give us any details!
Yup… Thanks!