Carolina Grasshopper

Dissosteira carolina — the Carolina grasshopper — is one of the most spectacular flying grasshoppers in North America and a flagship species in studies of FLASH COLORATION as anti-predator defense. The species is widespread across all of North America from southern Canada south through the US to Mexico. Adults are 3-5 cm body length with the species' diagnostic two-state appearance. AT REST: the grasshopper is grayish-brown to dirt-colored with mottled markings, perfectly camouflaged against bare soil, dirt roads, and barren ground. The cryptic camouflage is so effective that the grasshopper is essentially invisible against substrate until it moves — even careful observers walking along dirt roads will pass within centimeters of resting Carolina grasshoppers without seeing them. IN FLIGHT: when startled into flight, the grasshopper unfolds the hindwings to reveal a dramatic display: BLACK HINDWINGS BORDERED BY A BROAD CREAM-OR-WHITE WING BAND that creates a visual pattern strikingly similar to a black-and-white butterfly. The dramatic transformation from invisible-at-rest to highly-visible-in-flight is one of the most-cited examples of FLASH COLORATION (also called 'startle coloration') in arthropod biology. The flight display is augmented by AUDIBLE WING CRACKLING — Carolina grasshoppers produce a loud crackling or hand-clapping sound from the wings during flight (a behavior called 'crepitation' — the sound is produced by snapping the hardened front wings together against the hindwings during the wing-beat). The combined visual flash + audible crackle creates a STARTLE DISPLAY that is widely interpreted as anti-predator: a startled bird or small mammal predator is presented with an unexpected appearance and sound from what looked like motionless soil, often disrupting the predation attempt. The grasshopper then lands a few meters away on similar substrate, immediately becoming invisible again. Carolina grasshoppers are not crop pests (they prefer disturbed bare-ground habitats over agricultural fields) and feed on grasses and forbs in disturbed grassland habitats — dirt roads, fence lines, recently-burned areas, gravel parking lots. The species is harmless to humans and one of the most-photographed grasshoppers in North American macro nature photography.