Found on a trail in California, SF Bay Area. About an inch long.
this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Interesting. It looks like it has the head and legs of a grasshopper, body of an ant and butt of a bee.
It's probably just because grasshoppers usually having wings, so you don't see their body sections. Like, this looks more like a 'normal' grasshopper to me and it still has similar body structure and coloring underneath its wings:
Having said that, I'm just looking at the grasshopper wikipedia and the variety is wild to begin with: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper#
Never liked grasshoppers always made my skin crawl. Only know about these guys because my parents get them in their home, never actually seen them though… just their legs, guess my parent’s cats find them pretty tasty
We used to find them all the time in my area, but I haven't seen one in decades.
Yeah I don’t see nearly as many of the critters I saw as a kid, though I spend far less time sifting through dirt as an adult
Good point. Also, we played in empty lots a bunch as a kid, but there aren't many anymore, which is probably part of the problem too.
I mean, it's good to recognize potential biases, but we're genuinely losing massive amounts of insects, see for example: https://www.boell.de/en/insect-deaths
It’s tragic but also highlights how dire it is to preserve our environment.
Hmmm nah, best I can do is pump more oil
Potato Bug, my mother's worst nightmare. When I was a kid and digging in the sandy soil backyard of Pismo Beach/Five-Cities area, I'd find them an inch or 3 under the surface all the time. Needless to say my mom didn't do much gardening.
It’s an absolute alien horror, is what it is.
The glossyness is what icks me out the most.
It looks like an ant, a grasshopper and a cockroach had a really greasy baby somehow.
Mole cricket i would guess. Was looking online for the difference between a mole and jeruzalem cricket.
This ; Jerusalem crickets have huge heads and big pincers. and mole crickets have a lower profile and stay closer to the ground, like moles...
Looking at pictures of both, this one is definitely a Jerusalem cricket. But mole crickets are fascinating. A bug with little mole paws looks more like a pokemon than a real life insect.