I know nothing about grasshoppers or locusts and really had only seen the small green ones on vegetables sometimes. But at present I have several sorts inhabiting my larger plants.
These gorgeous green ones do not have wings, so they must be at nymph stage, and they have eaten large holes in plants like arrowroot.
This one on a small citrus tree has the beginnings of wings. It appears to be resting there rather than eating the leaves.
But this small yellow and brown hopper has clearly been busy munching up strength for whatever comes next.
And then I notice more in a casuarina tree, whose needle leaves do not seem like a good food source, nor even camouflage for this bright lime green hopper.
As my eyes adjust, I see several very different and much larger members of the hopper family in the casuarina. Much better camouflage, even for such bold patterning as this fellow has.
I will need to be on guard for what this group of hopovers turn into next. I wish I knew more or had time to make more sense of this family’s lives.
So far I can afford the bits they take from my plants. I cannot yet say I have a biblical plague of locusts.
Covid-19 is quite enough.