Hunting Grasshoppers

We set out for an evening nature study complete with quilt, picnic supper, fruit jars of cold sweet tea, camera, and a B.B. gun. Don't ask me what the B.B. gun was for, I am just the mom. We headed north of town several miles on the winding dirt roads, up through the big bend in the irrigation canal and ended up on the prairie grassland and found several of these

Plains Lubber Grasshoppers.

Have you ever in your life seen a grasshopper this big? I haven't either. The grassland north of us is just teeming with these humongous hoppers. These are Brachystola magna according to our research. We gathered up about 8 of these guys to watch them for a few days. The wings are very small on this "brand" of grasshopper making it impossible for the creature to fly. (Easier to catch that way!)