Tropidacris cristata (linked to Wikipedia) is the scientific name of the Central & South American “Giant Grasshopper” or “Red-wing Grasshopper” and the plague we had at Arenal last week on a few plants was just their “nymphs” or babies! Interesting, colorful and amazing to see! See some of the giants in my Grasshopper Gallery. They are generally called “Lubber” Grasshoppers and these are just one of many species under lubbers. All grasshoppers together in Costa Rica number over 11,000 species. So it is difficult to get IDs of very many! 🙂 Here’s four photos including a close-up of these ‘nymphs” at work in Arenal.
¡Pura Vida!
WOW!!!
Not for me!
xoxo
🙂
You’re experiencing an invasion of grasshoppers. Nashville is experiencing 13-year cicadas. I’m sure you remember how much fun they can be. Of course, the cicadas do less damage than grasshoppers.
Yes, I remember the explosion of cicadas in Nashville! I have seen individual cicadas here but not aware that there is a cycle of them like in the states. At least I haven’t seen that yet. And that group of grasshopper nymphs I photographed was not a plague here, but just one group (possibly one batch of eggs) in the forests of Arenal. ~Charlie