northeast-flora-and-fauna

I think this is a Carolina Grasshopper I met last summer, though I have to admit it doesn't look a lot different from the Sulphur-winged Grasshopper . At least it doesn't look like the Differential Grasshoppers .  Though it might surprise you to look at a stationary 1, these grasshoppers are frequently mistaken for butterflies when in flight. This is partly because they have a somewhat erratic flight like a fluttering butterfly and partly because their mostly-dark wings with light-colored edges reminds people of a Mourning Cloak butterfly. If you think you see a Mourning Cloak in flight but it completely disappears when it lands on the ground, you might be seeing a Carolina Grasshopper. As frequently happens, this species has a far wider range than the "Carolina" part of its name might lead you to believe. They can be found in most of the contiguous 48 US states and much of southern Canada. June 29, 2023 at Sourland Mountain Preserve Photo 301251109, (c) jpviolette,...

Here's a Sulphur-winged Grasshopper I met last spring. Or at least that's the ID I got from iNaturalist (and it seems to be a reasonable ID). I got a pretty good picture of this individual, and although I'd have liked to have gotten different angles, grasshoppers are rarely cooperative and are very good at flying off when I try and maneuver around them. Sulphur-winged Grasshoppers are, unfortunately, more than a little variable in appearance . Admittedly they don't look like puppies or woodpeckers, but their coloring isn't especially uniform. I do see some faint banding on the rear leg femur, and there is a yellow ring around the rear leg tibia. The head might look a little boxier than some other grasshoppers, but I'm not sure you can see the pronotum (a saddle-like shield just behind the head) well enough to help with the identification. If I had a picture of the grasshopper with its wings open, and if we saw a sulphur-colored band on those wings, this identif...