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Photo#488076
Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - male

Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - Male
Village Creek State Park, Cross County, Arkansas, USA
January 29, 2011
Size: 32 mm
I believe this is a Mischievous Bird Grasshopper (Schistocerca damnifica). I have a question about the behavior. When we first saw it, sitting on a twig on a low bush, it sidled around to the other side of the twig from us. When we came up on both sides, it lifted first one hind leg (first photo) and then the other (subsequent photos) out to the side, completely extended, and held that position. The fourth photo shows the body lined up with the twig, and the legs held straight out, looking somewhat as if they were twigs coming off the main branch. Was this an attempt by the grasshopper to conceal itself in the guise of being a twig?

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Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - male Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - male Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - male Mischievous Bird Grasshopper - Schistocerca damnifica - male

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