Humbe tenuicornis (Schaum, 1853)

Caveat to the new random selection of featured creatures - if all photographs of the randomly selected subject (Morphacris fasciata) are blurry, selecting a neighbouring species is acceptable.

And so I give you:

Although I like this angle, I recognise that it's a little generic, so I'll be generous and give you another shot of this species:

Both images captured in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia in February 2013, using Olympus DSLR with 40-150mm Zuiko Lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This lovely grasshopper is:

Humbe tenuicornis

(Schaum, 1853)

Although widespread and fairly awesome, it's the only species in the genus. Which adds a level of confidence to my identification of this (African) species. 

I can't say much about it, except that it seems most common late in the rainy season and, like all known true grasshoppers, is probably primarily herbivorous. It has no common name that I'm aware of, although, as children, my sister and I referred to this (and several less abundant species) as 'dinosaur grasshoppers' because of the inflated, keeled pronotum, which was vaguely reminiscent of the hoods of Ceratopsids such as Triceratops. I did say vaguely. 

Anyway, into the taxonomy: 

- Oedipodinae
 - Acrididae       

See also Cyathosternum prehensile

- Acridoidea       

See also Lobosceliana loboscelis

- Acrididea            
 - Caelifera                
- Orthoptera                

See also Stictogryllacris punctata

- Panorthoptera              
- Orthopterida                   
- Polyorthoptera                  
 - Anartioptera                        
- Polyneoptera                          

See also Sibylla 

- Neoptera                                    

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

- Manopterygota                               

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                             

- Dicondylia                                             

- Insecta                                                      

- Hexapoda                                                     

- Arthropoda                                                       

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

- Ecdysozoa                                                              

- Protostomia                                                                 

- Nephrozoa                                                                      

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Chiromantis xerampelina, Rana temporaria, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                       

And, beyond the obligatory footnote that grasshoppers are awesome, That's All, Folks. 



As always, the Orthoptera Species File is the place to go to identify tropical orthopterans. It's strongest in the US and Europe, for which purpose-built guides can be found, but African grasshoppers are generally well covered, as are most katydids (other family groups are not as complete for their coverage of images and ranges).