September 20th, 2007
the return of the phenological grasshoppers
Around mid-September last year, I wrote about the phenological grasshoppers that come to our front porch to lay eggs each year. Now, as mentioned yesterday, I’ve been doing quite a bit of work on the front porch — replacing some of the deck boards that were looking rather ragged, etc… So, late yesterday afternoon, having finished with the carpentry, I began loading the old boards on a wheelbarrel to take to our scrap lumber pile. Being fairly observant, I noticed two Pinetree Spurthroated Grasshoppers (Melanoplus punctulatus) busily engaged at ovipositing in nail holes in one of the boards which I was about to move. Of course, I wasn’t about to disrupt their work, so I got out my cameras and did a bit of shooting. As you may recall from last year’s post, I’ve been photographing and recording the date of the annual appearance of this species since September 2004. September 19th is about the latest that I’ve seen them laying eggs on the porch. Fortunately for the grasshoppers, there are enough somewhat older boards remaining on the porch to ensure that they’ll have plenty of places to lay eggs next year.
Tags: Pinetree Spurthroated Grasshoppers, Melanoplus punctulatus, phenology