Slant-faced Grasshoppers (Mating)

Description:

A mating pair of slant-faced grasshoppers. Brown female is about 33-35mm in length and male green about 8-10mm shorter. The female looks odd the way its head is turned almost 90 degrees, as if it has been snapped and broken.. They are grass green in color, with pink color on their hind wings and abdomen, covered by front wings. Males are smaller than female in size. Nymphs look similar to the adults except wingless. Both green and brown forms can be found in this species. Atractomorpha psittacina psittacina (Haan, 1842), considered as sweet potato pests, are slant-faced grasshoppers, voracious leaf eaters that makes big irregular holes before they consume the entire leaf. It is from Pyrgomorphidae, a family of grasshoppers in the order Orthoptera commonly known as the gaudy grasshoppers.

Habitat:

Backyard, spotted the pair amongst the weeds.

Notes:

Looks a lot like Acrida spp (sample sp: http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-59255128...), but Acrida spp are not distributed in the Philippines: http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common.... Reference: http://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/sweetp... http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common... http://www.eclecticstock.com/photo.asp?P...