Eastern Lubber Grasshopper: Mosaic Colors of Pesky Romalea microptera

Summary: Eastern lubber grasshopper (Romalea guttata) is a New World insect native to the southern United States and distinguished by striking colors and large size.

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, South Florida; Friday, Oct. 3, 2003, 16:39: Klaus Hoffmeier, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Romalea microptera is a New World grasshopper native to the southern United States. The voracious plant eater claims primary homelands throughout Florida and Georgia; northeastward into eastern South Carolina and central North Carolina; and northwestward into most of Georgia, southern Tennessee, southern Mississippi, western and southern Louisiana, and east central Texas.

The colorful, flightless insect also ranges into Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Romalea microptera (Ancient Greek: μικρός, mikrós, “small” + from πτερόν, pterón, “wing”) also has the scientific synonym of Romalea guttata (Latin: gutta, “speckle, spot”).

Romalea microptera is known commonly in English as Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper or Georgia Thumper.

Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers favor moist, open areas, such as croplands, fields, lawns and roadsides. In Florida, the pesky natives proliferate in drainage ditches near citrus groves.

The journey to adulthood is prefaced by five -- sometimes six -- instars, or developmental stages, in nymphs.

Noticeable characteristics of Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers include vivid coloration of adults, flightlessness and large size.

Alternatively, adulthood may culminate in a dark morph variant, characterized by overall blackness punctuated by sparse, yet vivid orange and yellow marks.

In addition to vegetable crops and Florida's citrus groves, Eastern Lubber Grasshoppers enjoy: Amaryllidaceae family flowers, especially amaryllis (Amaryllis spp.), crinum (Crinum spp.) and narcissus (Narcissus spp.); pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata); pokeweed (Phytolacca Americana); sedges (Cyperaceae family); spurge nettle (Cnidoscolus stimulosus), also known as tread-softly.

On Wednesday, May 13, as I was walking along a popular trail about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south of my home, brilliant colors of gold, orange and red caught my attention in the green grass along the roadside.

An Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, measuring the length of my index finger at 3 inches (7.62 centimeters), lay peacefully on its right side, with no visible injuries or trauma to betray the cause of death.

Its place of death is an Eastern Lubber Grasshopper's habitat paradise. The site features acres of grass. A nearby mesic (Ancient Greek), or moist, landscape favors sedges (Cyperaceae family) and mixed deciduous (Latin: deciduus, "that which falls off") groves. Especially American sycamores (Platanus occidentalis) and willows (Salix spp.) dominate the groves. A halcyon roadside and a lengthily winding stream frame the vegetative landscape.

adult dark morph Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, University of Mississippi Field Station; Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, 13:32: Fredlyfish4, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, South Florida; Friday, Oct. 3, 2003, 16:39: Klaus Hoffmeier, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Romalea_microptera.jpg

adult dark morph Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, University of Mississippi Field Station; Thursday, Oct. 9, 2014, 13:32: Fredlyfish4, CC BY SA 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons @ http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Romalea_guttata_UMFS_2014.JPG

For further information:

Kevan, D. Keith McE. “Romalea Guttata (Houttuyn), Name Change for Well-Known ‘Eastern Lubber Grasshopper’ (Orthoptera: Romaleidae).” Entomological News, vol. 91, no. 4 (September and October 1980): 139–140.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2693523

Scherer, Clay W., and John L. Capinera. "Eastern Lubber Grasshopper, Romalea microptera (Beauvois)(=guttata (Houttuyn))(Insecta: Orthoptera: Acrididae).” Featured Creatures > Entomology and Nematology Department > University of Florida IFAS Extension. October 1996; revised July 2013.
Available @ http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN13200.pdf
Available @ http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/lubber.htm#lifecycle