This weekend at Canyon Trail Park, El Cerrito, we happened to stepped upon a field that was infested -- or should we say devastated -- by Devestator Grasshoppers (Melanoplus devastator)! Canyon Trail Park is a pretty nice site for finding Pipevine Swallowtails (Battus philenor). It happens to be one of the few natural areas left with a stand of wild-growing California Pipevine (Aristolochia californica) and, as you could probably guess, that was what we had originally come for this Sunday 6/26. There, the pipevine grows atop an elevated (mountainous) area where there are big trees and other vines (bramble and ivy) that provide with the shade it like and also something for it to crawl on. On the other hand, the bottom portion of this area is a very open area consisting of a large field of dried grass interspersed with a few little shrubs and Coast Live Oak trees (Quercus agrifolia). Yesterday (6/25) we had found a curious looking grasshopper nymph among the grasses as we were picking pipevine leaves for our caterpillars. At the time it was starting to get dark so it was difficult to catch or see if there were any more. But today, when we came again in the blazing hot afternoon, we immediately realized that they place was covered in these grasshoppers. As soon as we step foot in their territory, they would spring out in front of us like a bunch of bullets to avoid our step. They were all about the same size, probably somewhere in the middle instars. With so many of them hopping in every direction, there were clearly far too many of them for us to catch (not that we would want to anyway) so, equipped with a little plastic container, we ended up just snagging two of them so we could later observe and identify them. After we got home, we identified these grasshoppers as Devasting Grasshoppers (Melanoplus devastator). One of them had even molted on the way and we decided took them both outside to get a few shots, but unfortunately one of them escaped in the process. With the remaining grasshopper, we decided that we may as well try to make a home for it since we weren't going to be letting it go any time soon. However, we had never raised any of these kinds of grasshoppers, with the only grasshopper we have kept being the Pallid-wing Grasshopper (Trimerotropis pallidipennis). Whenever we had tried to keep these, they have always died within a week or so because we could not figure out a suitable habitat and what they preferred to eat. Luckily, the little devastator seemed to be pretty happy in the plastic container it was caught in and we left it in there with a few fresh weeds we had picked in our yard. We had seen the Pallid-wings eating dead grass and because we had found the Devastating Grasshoppers in dead grass field, we were afraid it might not readily accept the fresh weeds but it did. Hopefully, we can keep it alive and see how beautiful it becomes when it is an adult! - Brian
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Timeline 2012–2017
Albany, California This timeline is a series of daily posts recording our observations on and experiences with various insects in Albany California and surrounding areas, from 2012-2017. Since we did not publish this site until 2016, posts before that were constructed retroactively. Starting in August 2017, we moved to Ithaca, New York; posts from there on can be viewed at Timeline 2017-present: Ithaca, New York. Archives (1,011)
August 2017 (49) July 2017 (121) June 2017 (79) May 2017 (77) April 2017 (91) March 2017 (35) February 2017 (12) January 2017 (10) December 2016 (12) November 2016 (26) October 2016 (49) September 2016 (84) August 2016 (94) July 2016 (99) June 2016 (53) May 2016 (21) April 2016 (4) January 2016 (1) August 2015 (3) July 2015 (3) June 2015 (2) June 2014 (3) May 2014 (1) April 2014 (3) March 2014 (3) December 2013 (2) November 2013 (2) October 2013 (5) September 2013 (11) August 2013 (15) July 2013 (9) June 2013 (5) May 2013 (4) April 2013 (3) March 2013 (2) February 2013 (3) January 2013 (2) December 2012 (2) November 2012 (1) October 2012 (2) September 2012 (2) August 2012 (5) July 2012 (1) June 2012 (1) Authors
![]() ![]() Full Species List (Alphabetical by scientific name) Note: - Not every species we encounter is necessarily presented on this site, rather a selection of those that were of particular interest to us and that we felt were worth documenting. - We can't guarantee that all species have been identified accurately, particularly taxa we are not as familiar with. Lepidoptera Actias luna Adelpha californica Agraulis vanillae Allancastria cerisyi Antheraea mylitta Antheraea polyphemus Anthocharis sara Argema mimosae Attacus atlas Battus philenor hirsuta Bombyx mori Caligo atreus Callosamia promethea Coenonympha tullia california Citheronia regalis Cricula trifenestrata Danaus plexippus Eacles imperialis Erynnis tristis Estigmene acrea Eumorpha achemon Eupackardia calleta Furcula cinereoides Heliconius erato Heliconius hecale Heliconius sapho Heliconius sara Hyalophora cecropia Hyalophora columbia Hyalophora euryalus Hylephila phyleus Hyles lineata Junonia coenia Langia zenzeroides formosana Lophocampa maculata Manduca sexta Morpho peleides Nymphalis antiopa Orgyia vetusta Orthosia hibisci quenquefasciata Pachysphinx modesta Papilio cresphontes Papilio eurymedon Papilio glaucus Papilio machaon oregonius Papilio multicaudata Papilio polyxenes asterius Papilio rumiko Papilio rutulus Papilio zelicaon Phyciodes mylitta Phyciodes pulchella Pieris rapae Plejebus acmon Poanes melane Polites sabuleti Polygonia satyrus Pyrgus communis Rothschildia jacobaeae Samia cynthia advena Samia ricini Smerinthus cerisyi Smerinthus ophthalmica Strymon melinus Trichoplusia ni Uresephita reversalis Vanessa annabella Vanessa atalanta Vanessa cardui Unidentified Lepidoptera Hybrids Papilio glaucus × Papilio rutulus Papilio polyxenes asterius × Papilio zelicaon Orthoptera Melanoplus devastator Phaneroptera nana Pristoceuthophilus pacificus Scudderia mexicana Trimerotropis pallidipennis Phasmatodea Carausius morosus Phyllium giganteum Mantodea Mantis religiosa Phyllocrania paradoxa Hymenoptera Apis mellifera Bombus vosnesenskii Brachymeria ovata Linepithema humile Pediobius sp. Polistes dominula Xylocopa varipuncta Unidentified Diptera Lucilia sericata Unidentified Hemiptera Brochymena sp. Leptoglossus sp. Nezara viridula Odonata Argia vivida Libellula croceipennis Coleoptera Coccinella septempunctata Cycloneda polita Diabrotica undecimpunctata Hippodamia convergens Araneae (Class: Arachnida) Araneus diadematus Phidippus johnsoni |