Yes, Orthoptera. Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, bush crickets - all that good stuff.
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In today's post, I collected most insects from the order Orthoptera, which I photographed from 2007 to 2009 using the Canon EOS 350D camera, the 100mm f/2.8 Macro lens, and the Canon Macro Ring Lite MR-14. Ah, those were the times. Despite not being present on any social network, I felt more socialized than now. Social networks with their fabricated, often exaggerated emotionality, their strong tendency to elevate banality, and a myriad of morronic written & unwritten rules regurarely wake up a sociopath in me.
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This is the Psophus stridulus, commonly known as the Rattle grasshopper.
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I took these photographs relatively far from home ...
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... in the mountains about a hundred kilometers from where I live.
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That area near the border with Slovenia is the nearest place I can find this species.
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Psophus stridulus from the Acrididae family is a fairly big, sturdy grasshopper ...
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... that lives mainly in arid and rocky open areas.
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Mountains are its ideal habitat. In the following photograph ...
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... you can see a Rattle grasshopper cleaning its eyes.
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This is a bush cricket ...
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... a member of the Tettigoniidae family.
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The name of the species is Poecilimon ornatus.
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You can also call it the Ornate Bright Bush Cricket, if you wish.
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Different colors inside the same species are fairly common among bush crickets and locusts. In the following photograph ...
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... you can see a greener Ornate Bright Bush Cricket.
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This one looks like it could be perfectly camouflaged among the exuberant green vegetation in springtime and early summer, while the Poecilimon ornatus I introduced earlier ...
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... seems ready to hide in the slightly yellowish foliage decorated with different dots and stains typical for the late summer and early autumn.
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I photographed both morphs the same day.
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On the 23rd of June 2009.
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That's why you can see them next to each other, posing on the same branch in this shot.
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To encounter this species ...
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... I have to drive at least forty kilometers ...
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... to the deciduous woods in the central, inland parts of Istria.
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As you can see in this long series of photographs dedicated to just one species ...
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... Poecilimon ornatus is a big, fat insect with extremely reduced wings unusable for flying or assisting long elegant jumps. These bush crickets jump around like clumsy little frogs.
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In this and the following seventeen shots ...
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... you can follow ...
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... the molting of another species from the Tettigoniidae family.
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It's the Platycleis intermedia ...
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... commonly known as the Intermediate Grey Bush Cricket ...
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... a considerably smaller, elegant Orthopteran ...
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... with well developed wings.
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These agile bush crickets can do long jumps and short flights when the occasion requires it.
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The Intermediate Grey Bush Crickets are very common in my area.
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I often see them jumping all around the meadows on the outskirts of my hometown.
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This is a very small, young nymph ...
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... of a very common grasshopper.
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A grasshopper so common on the dry summer meadows that is commonly known as the Common Straw Grasshopper.
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Here you can see a young grasshopper posing on the ear of grass. The nymph shown in the following photograph...
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... is older and bigger. It looks quite different but it belongs to the same species.
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Here you can see the same scene lit differently.
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The nymph posing in this series of four photographs is even bigger, with considerably longer, more developed wings.
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This insect is very close to its adult stage.
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The scientific name of the species is Euchorthippus declivus. It belongs to the Acrididae family.
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In this series of six photographs, the grasshopper is posing on the fallen leaves.
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Here you can see the same grasshopper from a different angle.
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This adult male Common Straw Grasshopper was photographed in a very different light.
I didn't use the flash this time. It's one of only three photographs taken in natural light you'll see in today's post.
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In this shot, you can see a pair of Euchorthippus declivus mating.
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Here you can see a colorful bush cricket posing on the soft carpet made of small yellow flowers.
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This is a Decticus albifrons nymph.
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Decticus albifrons is yet another species from the Tettigoniidae family...
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... commonly known as the White-faced Bush Cricket.
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The head, the fore legs, and parts of the thorax in these nymphs are usually brown but sometimes, fairly rarely in my experience, are vivid red or pink.
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Here you can see the young, small, and partially pink nymph ...
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... of the Meadow Grasshopper from the Acrididae family.
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The scientific name of the species ...
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... is Pseudochorthippus parallelus.
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I took these photographs in the juicy tall grass near the river, the preferred habitat of the Meadow Grasshoppers. It was in the northern part of Istria, about eighty or ninety kilometers from where I live.
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Pseudochorthippus parallelus can't be found in my area.
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This is the Platycleis albopunctata ...
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... commonly known ...
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... as the Grey Bush cricket.
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