August 8 | Waccasassa River: Thousands of eastern lubber grasshoppers (Romalea microptera/R. gutatta) descend upon the Waccasassa. They move along the shoreline in the slow, deliberate cadence of a drunkard’s gait. Both hind- and fore-wings are underdeveloped, leaving the grasshopper flightless1 and seemingly helpless.
Yet the lubber thrives in great swarms that emerge from the ground in spring—an army of black nymphs that cover the high forbs in darkness to gorge. Marching as far north as the Tarr River, south to the Keys, and west to the hills of San Antonio2,3.
Adult lubbers are the largest of their kind in North America1—females routinely exceeding 9 cm, or the average length of a middle finger. Because of their size and reproductive success, lubbers (and other grasshoppers belonging to the family, Romaleidae) have been a popular model of invertebrate anatomy for over a half-century in biology classrooms around the world4. While their torpor, size and brachyptery make them an easy target for predation, they have an innate immunity to the hobgoblins of nature: Chemical warfare. When threatened, lubbers throw a possessed, deimatic fit: Hissing, bluffing, vomiting, and spraying noxious, aposematic chemicals that repel and even kill, birds, reptiles, and mammals5.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Schowalter 2018. Biology and management of the eastern lubber grasshopper (Orthoptera: Acrididae. Journal of Integrated Pest Management, 9(1): 10; 1-7.
2. Capinera et al. 2004. Field Guide to the Grasshoppers, Katydids, Crickets of the United States. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY.
3. Capinera and Scherer 1996. Eastern lubber grasshopper. University of Florida, IFAS: https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/lubber.htm
4. Orlans, F. Barbara; Beauchamp, Tom L.; Dresser, Rebecca; Morton, David B.; Gluck, and John P. 1998. The Human Use of Animals. Oxford University Press. pp. 213. ISBN 978-0- 19-511908-4.
5. Jones, CG, Hess, TA, Whitman, DW et al. 1987. Effects of diet breadth on autogenous chemical defense of a generalist grasshopper. J. Chem. Ecol. 13 (2): 283.
6. Blum et al. 1992. Ingested Allelochemicals in insect wonderland: A menu of remarkable functions. Am. Entomology: 38: 222.
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