Handsome Macrotona Grasshopper - Macrotona mjoebergi
Family Acrididae
This page contains pictures and information about the Handsome Macrotona Grasshoppers that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Female laying eggs, body length 30mm
- The Handsome Macrotona Grasshoppers are black in colour with white strips from head to wing tip. Its abdomen is reddish-yellow in colour. The grasshoppers rest on eucalyptus forest floor, when we walk across, they jump and flies a few meters away and hide within plant materials on ground. Both male and female are fully winged. Their antennae are relatively short, with flattened tip.
- The Handsome Macrotona Grasshopper can be found in eucalyptus forest associated with Spinifex grass Triodia. The above pictures are taken in Alexandra Hill Conservation Area. near Coolnwynpin Creek.
- Some of their adults have dark grey hind legs while some others have bright reddish-yellow hind legs. However, their head and wings colour are the same.
- In late summer Feb 2008, we saw a female laying eggs on a sandy footpath in Karawatha Forest.
- Feb 2009 in Ford Road Conservation Area.
- Reference:
- 1. Grasshopper Country - the Abundant Orthopteroid Insects of Australia, D Rentz, UNSW Press, 1996, p189.
- 2. A Guide to Australian Grasshoppers and Locusts - DCF Rentz, RC Lewis, YN Su and MS Upton, 2003, p281.
