Zonocerus elegans (Thurnberg, 1815)

Today, that is to say the 5th of May, is surprisingly enough the date of the annual Cinco de Mayo celebrations in the US and Mexico, which - despite a series of five second films from a Los Angeles comedy group that suggest its origins are unknowable - celebrates a key Mexican victory over French forces in the American Civil War.

I've never been to Mexico. Neither has this:

Photographed in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia in January 2014, using Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 2 KOOD magnifiers.

This delightful - unless you're trying to grow certain crops - Mnunkhadala is a widespread Sub-Saharan blubber-locust which can very occasionally reach densities sufficient for it to become a minor pest, but usually inflicts no real damage on the broad-leafed plants it feeds on. Mnunkhadala is quite a specific name: typically translated just as the English name of this species - the Elegant Grasshopper - which can also refer to a closely related species from West Africa, where Chewa-derived languages and dialects are not native. I'm uncertain as to whether the Chewa term also refers to other blubber locusts, distinguishing them from similar, less toxic true locusts, but I digress.

The link to Cinco de Mayo is a bit tenuous - Mexico's national Arthropod is the grasshopper (Chapolin in Náhuatl; Saltamontes in Spanish). Although on occasion Chapolin refers to a specific edible genus (and the species featured today is notably inedible), I, having never been to the New World, lack pictures of that genus, and this one's vibrant colouring put me in mind of what I've seen of Mexican artwork. 

As a further view, here's the whole insect: 

Same grasshopper, same day, same place. One less KOOD magnifier, I think.

As previously noted, a lot of locusts (from various parts of the family Acrididae) around the world are edible, and in both Mexico and Zambia, can be a major source of protein in rural areas. 

The Blubber Locusts, family Pyrgomorphidae, are generally not edible. They generally eat toxic plants, and built their own chemical arsenal by retaining those toxins in their tissues - as is advertised by their generally vibrant colours. 










As I now have to return to my actual job, I'll add the taxonomy and links later, and for now just note that to avoid the confusion of language, this Mnunkhadala's Linnaean binomial is:

Zonocerus elegans

(Thurnberg, 1815)

So with that, have a good Cinco de Mayo, be nice to some grasshoppers, and that is all (for now) folks!