Grasshopper ID

[dragonblade71]

I was wondering if anyone could ID this grasshopper? It is roughly about 8 - 10cm in length and was found on Kangaroo Island in South Australia, Australia. I contacted the South Australian Museum but they weren't much help at all.

 

[A cave cricket]

P.brachyptera. But it's native to North America?

 

[A cave cricket]

I was wrong it's Morabidae.

 

[dragonblade71]

Ah thank you. I found a comprehensive website on grasshoppers here:

Ellura Sanctuary: Hoppers

I do see a number of Morabidae specimens near the bottom of the page. My hopper also has quite a resemblance to the bark mimicking grasshopper Coryphistes ruricola (family Acrididae) featured on that site.

 

[A cave cricket]

Cool.

 

[dragonblade71]

Ive done some more reading about tMorabidae. It seems that generally, these grasshoppers are slender and wingless. Though the grasshopper I photographed is not really slender like the ones seen in photos from that family. And it does have wings.

 

[A cave cricket]

Might be a new species. You never know.

 

[A cave cricket]

Pyrgomorphidae maybe?

 

[dragonblade71]

Pyrgomorphidae is a possibility. There is some resemblance. Though I guess we can't be 100% sure.

I made an enquiry to the South Australian Museum (trying to identify this grasshopper.) They had no idea. They asked me how long the insect was and if I had any photos from different angles. Unfortunately, I only have side on views. I thought a side on view would be sufficient in most cases? I e-mailed them back and gave a rough approximation of the length but I never heard back from them.

 

[A cave cricket]

Is the grasshopper in the wild?

 

[dragonblade71]

Is the grasshopper in the wild?

It is now. Yea I released it after I finished recording footage of it. I also sent a link to the video to a local entomologist and he reckons it's likely in the Coryphistes genus within Acrididae. As I mentioned above, there is some resemblance to Coryphistes ruricola. Though apparently, ruricola only grow to around 5cm. This grasshopper is a fair bit larger at around 8 - 10cm approximately. There are only two other known species in Coryphistes (glabriceps and interioris) but I can't find any specific information about them online.

 

[A cave cricket]

Might not even be a grasshopper.

 

[A cave cricket]

*sigh* time to look deep in the archive.

 

[dragonblade71]

Might not even be a grasshopper.

What makes you say that? It's definitely a grasshopper of some kind.

 

[Dabugboi]

It is now. Yea I released it after I finished recording footage of it. I also sent a link to the video to a local entomologist and he reckons it's likely in the Coryphistes genus within Acrididae. As I mentioned above, there is some resemblance to Coryphistes ruricola. Though apparently, ruricola only grow to around 5cm. This grasshopper is a fair bit larger at around 8 - 10cm approximately. There are only two other known species in Coryphistes (glabriceps and interioris) but I can't find any specific information about them online.

Hello from SA, I cannot see the link you uploaded thus I cannot help you identify your grasshopper but C. ruricola gets much larger than 5cm, in my experience they are usually 7-9cm in length

 

[dragonblade71]

Hello from SA, I cannot see the link you uploaded thus I cannot help you identify your grasshopper but C. ruricola gets much larger than 5cm, in my experience they are usually 7-9cm in length

Hey great to have another SA forum member. That's good to know that C. ruricola get to that kind of size range. I made a change to the settings for the youtube video. Can you see it now?

 

[Dabugboi]

Yeah, so cool! it almost looks like cgi. That one is indeed Coryphistes ruricola

 

[dragonblade71]

Thank you for the confirmation! I only had this specimen for a fairly short time (not much more than a day) and it seemed to get quite used to me. It kept jumping on to my shoulder. And when it came time to release it, it got fairly clingy and didn't want to let go of my finger.