Romalea microptera
| Location: | Southeastern and South-central United States |
| Size: | 50 – 70mm |
| Diet: | All sorts of leaves |
What do you notice first, R.microptera’s beautiful yellow complexion or its bright pink wings? Let’s start with the wings – these are too small to allow for flight, so their purpose is more about defense. Flashing a bold pink colour at an approaching attacker could easily be enough to disorient it, allowing the grasshopper to escape. However, that escape is not going to be especially fast or impressive. The Lubber aspect of their common name* refers to the fact that they are slow, clumsy and rubbish at jumping. This means they need an assortment of defense capabilities.
As well as the aforementioned vibrant wings, these yellow oafs are also capable of hissing and deploying a spray of toxic chemicals, like a snake with some pepper spray. The lubbers don’t manufacture this toxicity themselves, they absorb it from the lillies that they eat. This also makes them taste foul, which they advertise through their bright yellow colouring (this is known as aposematism, and you’ll see numerous examples of it on this site because, frankly, it makes bugs look more exciting).
*’Lubber’ comes from the old English word ‘lobre’, meaning lazy or clumsy.
Take a closer look…
