Giant Red-winged Grasshopper

Description:

This is one of the nymphal stages of a giant red-winged grasshopper. Even at this stage, it is large, about 2½" - 3" long, and brilliantly marked yellow and black. It likely tastes nasty, and this is warning coloration. As an adult, it could be 6-7" long, one of the largest grasshoppers in the world. Photo #4 is the transparent exoskeleton, cast off when the nymph outgrew it.

Habitat:

Spotted in underbrush in the humid rainforest of the Maya Mt. foothills in western Belize

Notes:

I often find a single red underwing lying in the underbrush, dinner leftovers of some satisfied bird.