# Grasshopper identification/breeding



## Katie (Aug 18, 2005)

In the field I frequent I happened to catch what I assume to be a male/female grasshopper pair. They are both around 1 1/2 to 2 inches long; their wings are black and green:







and






Anything care-specific I should be doing? What do they lay their eggs in? It would be nice if I could breed these... they're huge!


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## Samzo (Aug 18, 2005)

Whoah...thats more of a locust lol UK grassies are tiny


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## PseudoDave (Aug 18, 2005)

Ours look like fleas compared to that... Sorry i'm not sure on an exact species, but nice catch


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## Katie (Aug 18, 2005)

I took a better photo:






For now I'll just set them up with dirt, grass, and maybe some greens, and see what happens.


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## worldofmantis (Aug 18, 2005)

I have them outside umm I think they lay thier eggs in the ground not sure though if not the ground most likley dirt


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## Ian (Aug 18, 2005)

wow katie, thats beautiful. The grasshoppers we get here are about the size of medium crickets, teeny things. I belive they are _Chorthippus brunneus_ or a smiliar species.

Cheers,

Ian


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## Rick (Aug 18, 2005)

Both of those are female. Post a good pic of each ones abdomen so I can tell for sure. Yeah Samzo we have some large grasshoppers in the US. You should see the bird grasshoppers we have around here. They are quite a bit bigger.


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## Katie (Aug 18, 2005)

Aw, what a shame. That's either very good news or disappointing news. They both flew up from the same spot, so I assumed they were a pair.  Oh well. If they don't lay eggs in the next month, Merry Mantis will have herself a nice big meal. I wish we had some of those "bird grasshoppers" around here, although if they're more difficult to catch than these, I'd be out of luck. :lol:


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## Rick (Aug 19, 2005)

Still both look female. But would need to see the tip of the abdomen better to be sure. I am 99% sure they are both female now though. The bird grasshoppers here are almost imposible to catch. I catch some other large ones here every week to feed mantids. Never had any luck trying to keep them though.


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## worldofmantis (Aug 19, 2005)

hey rick are you sexing them by the segments on their abdomen?

if so then how many do males have?


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## Rick (Aug 19, 2005)

You sex them by looking at the end of the abdomen. Females are pointed like in the pics. When I get back home I will find a pair and take a pic so you can compare.


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