Spotting a Northern green-striped grasshopper is one of the signs that spring is here! When they fly, the grasshoppers can make a loud clicking or snapping noise. To humans, the noise sounds like a soft buzz. The grasshoppers usually take short flights for only a couple seconds, but if disturbed, they can fly as far as 30 feet and up to two feet high.
Senior Naturalist Patti Bonnin of Houston Arboretum shares: “Usually green or brown in color, this particular grasshopper has a color mutation called erythrism, which occurs when there is an overproduction of red pigments and an underproduction of darker pigments. Since the survival of the grasshopper depends on its ability to camouflage into its surroundings, being bright pink is not exactly ideal. Erythrism is rare and more often found in katydids, making this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to behold!”
