Working in the garden this morning, I came upon this very small grasshopper shell. It’s rather ghostly, I think.
I have seen their leaf damage and, occasionally, see the grasshoppers themselves.
I have found many, many cicada shells in my time but never a grasshopper. So until I found this shell, I had given no thought to how they grow. Off to Google I went. It turns out that they are like many other insects: they grow and shed their old skin when it gets too tight. The old exoskeleton is what I have found. Some grasshoppers go through six stages of adult development, each time growing into a larger grasshopper, all within three months of hatching from eggs in the ground.
1 comment:
I remember finding them when I was a kid and played in the grass all summer. Nice photo. I haven't seen one in many years.
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