Heteropternis thoracica (Walker, 1870)

For those who have seen Silence of the Lambs: if Buffalo Bill had stuffed grasshoppers down his victim's throats instead of moths, I have to suspect that it would have been these.

Male. Photographed in March 2011, in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, using Olympus E-420, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

That's not a judgement on today's featured creature, a perfectly harmless - and herbivorous - grasshopper, but a note on the similarity of the thoracic markings for some males of this species and the Potato Hawk-Moth (Acherontia atropos - an as yet unfeatured European species) used by the character: the symmetrical pale markings on a dark background can, with a little more imagination required for the grasshopper, look rather skull-like.

In the case of this individual, quite a lot of imagination would be required.

Same individual, different angle.

 As with most African grasshoppers that don't form biblical swarms, there's not a huge amount known about this species. Quite possibly poisonous, as it shows off a bright-red abdomen in flight, but this is purely conjecture on my part. What we do know, or at least strongly suspect, is that it is:

Heteropternis thoracica

(Walker, 1870)

Which, as you may suspect, belongs to:

- Ailopini     

- Oedipodinae

See also Humbe tenuicornis.

- Acrididae       

See also Cyathosternum prehensile.

 - Acridoidea       

See also Lobosceliana loboscelis.

- Acrididea            

- Caelifera               

- Orthoptera              

See also Stictogryllacris punctata.

 - Panorthopera            

- Orthopterida               

- Polyorthoptera             

- Anartioptera                   

- Polyneoptera                   

See also Sibylla.

- Neoptera                             

See also Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Metadon inermis, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Metisella willemi, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Phyllobius pomaceus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Oedemera noobilis,Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Andrena nigroaenea, Hagenomyia tristis, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra and Grypocoris stysi. 

- Manopterygota                        

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni, Enallagma cyathigerum and Lestinogomphus angustus.

 - Pterygota                                    

- Dicondylia                                    

- Insecta                                            

- Hexapoda                                         

- Arthropoda                                         

See also Hyllus argyrotoxus, Argiope bruennichi, Enoplognatha ovata, Alopecosa barbipes, Dicranopalpus ramosus and Ligia oceanica.

- Ecdysozoa                                             

 - Protostomia                                             

- Nephrozoa                                                 

See also Synchiropus splendidus, Rana temporaria, Chiromantis xerampelina, Hipposideros vittatus, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Zootoca vivipara, Lygodactylus capensis, Troglodytes troglodytes, Chalcophaps indica, Ardea goliath, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus and Tockus alboterminatus

- Bilateralia                                                      

- Eumetazoa                                                       

- Animalia                                                              

- Eukaryota                                                                 

And that, folks, is all.

For now.



The orthoptera speciesfile is, as always, the best resource around for identifying African grasshoppers, although it must be noted that its usefulness is greatly increased by a rapid connection. Trawling through species distributions and descriptions with a dial-up connection would be extremely time-consuming and probably more expensive than purchasing the original papers in which regionally-appropriate species were described.