Thursday, October 7, 2010

The rains, trees and insects

Seen at GNP -
Pranav of MNS helped me id this!

Hi Ambika,
This is a short horned grasshopper (Acrididae) in the subfamily Oxyinae- most probably Oxya hyla hyla. I don't think there is a common name beyond "Short horned grasshopper"(which refers to thousands and thousands of other species), so these two will just have to be satisfied with the binomial name mentioned above.
Yes, they are a mating pair- the males are always smaller than the females. There is another subspecies- O. hyla intricata , which looks similar, with a deep brown shade above, instead of green. The two subspecies have been noticed mating with each other, but these two specimens seem to have stuck to their own kind... grasshoppers are strict vegetarians. In fact, they are despised for this very fact- the grasshopper in your photo is an infamous pest of rice...
Pranav

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