Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper
S14, 5th Instar, profile without leg
Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper
S14, Female, 5th Instar, Face
| Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper S14, 5th Instar, profile without leg | | Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper S14, Female, 5th Instar, Face | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Crickets, Grasshoppers & Katydids (Orthoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Short-horned Grasshopper (Caelifera: Acrididae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Mimetic Gumleaf Grasshopper (Goniaea opomaloides) | ||||
| This Photo: | 🔍S14, Female, 5th Instar, Pink Rear Leg🔎 | ||||
| Synonym: | Goniaea opomaloide | ||||
Thank you Robert Read & Matthew Connors for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, the Riverland and elsewhere Adult Males ~23-24mm, 5th Instar Female ~27mm, Adult Female ~35-43mm. Note that males have blue hind legs & females have "purple" hind legs. The 2 nymphs we've photographed have red to pink hind legs. Smaller than other Gumleaf grasshoppers. We thought some of these were G. volcans. When we quizzed Matthew on the notch in the 3 line (sulcus) on the pronotum on some of the specimens we photographed he said "G. opomaloides can have a notch there too but not always - the key feature is that the pronotum isn't arched at all (it's depressed here in fact which is a little weird)." Interestingly we get deep red specimens in Jan, around the time the Senna Seed Pods are turning the same deep/burnt red. At other times of the year they are pale brown. In Jan we found an instar (S14) which shed in the pot after we caught it; from 4th to 5th instar stage (you can tell by the size of the wing stubs). As we post process all images, and flip them so the head is always pointing to the left (makes comparison easier) the leg seems to be missing on different sides. | |||||
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