Eastern Lubber Grasshopper

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper: It was raining in the afternoon, and I looked out of a window, that was to the right of the front door, and I saw a very large grasshopper, resting next to the front door. This grasshopper was 3 inches long. Some of its colors was: different shades of brown, yellow, red, black, etc. This was a short-horned grasshopper. This grasshopper, had two short antennae, and two, large, black, compound eyes. This grasshopper, had six legs, and two pairs of wings. This grasshopper, had a head, thorax, and an abdomen. Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Orthoptera ( Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids ) Family: Acrididae ( Short-horned grasshoppers ) Genus: Romalea ( Lubber Grasshoppers ) Species: microptera ( Eastern Lubber Grasshopper ) The eastern lubber grasshopper, is surely the most distinctive grasshopper species, in the southeastern United States. This species, is incapable of flight, and can jump only short distances. Distinguished by its huge size, and vivid yellow/black coloration, with hind wings, red-bordered black. Flightless. Dark red to black nymph ( juvenile ) with constrasting yellow to red stripes, also distinctive. Size: 45 to 55 mm ( Adult male ). 50 to 70 mm ( Adult female ). Food: Many herbs and shrubs. Favorite foods are said to include: Pokeweed, Tread-softly, Pickerel weed, Lizards tail, Sedges, and Arrowhead. Adults are flightless. Coloration is aposematic ( Warning ). Apparently this species is distasteful to vertebrate predators. When disturbed, it will spread its wings, hiss, and secreate a smelly fluid from its spiracles. This grasshopper is alive, and able to move. Adults are flightless.