Variegated grasshopper

Description:

One of the brightly colored African grasshoppers. Adults are dark green with yellow, black and orange marking on their bodies. Nymphs are black with yellow markings on the body, legs and antenna and wing pads. Female grasshoppers lay many eggs just below the surface of the soil in the shade under evergreen plants, usually outside cassava fields. Eggs are laid in masses of froth, which harden to form sponge-like packets, known as egg pods, which look like tiny groundnut pods. Eggs start to hatch at the beginning of the main dry season.

Habitat:

Variegated grasshoppers are found in sub-Saharan Africa, inhabiting savannas, pastures, and agricultural fields.

Notes:

These grasshoppers feed on a variety of plants, especially relatives of peas. In Liberia, for example, they are considered an important pest of cassava (manioc) - they feed on cassava plants, eating leaves, causing defoliation in severe cases, and/or chewing stems, debarking it (the damages on cassava plants are shown on photos). Interesting thing : in French speaking African countries, this grasshopper is nicknamed "bad-smelling-grasshopper". In fact , they are capable to transform the bad-tasting chemicals from plants they feed on, and use these chemicals in their own body tissues as part of their own defense strategy. The bright colors of these grasshoppers advertise the fact that they taste bad. Important to note as well is that, because they may many kinds of plants with little or no bad-tasting chemicals, some of these grasshoppers may not taste bad at all. For example, In Liberia, they were considered a delicacy when roasted or fried.