Sep 17, 2014
"Devastating Grasshopper" (Melanoplus devastator)
....a species of spur-throated grasshopper (Melanoplinae) which is native to North America, where it occurs on the Pacific side of the cascades and Sierra Nevada from southwestern Washington south through Oregon and California. M. devastator is very close in appearance to the Migratory Grasshopper (Melanoplus sanguinipes) to the point where the distinction between the two may be artificial, and as such it is debated weather M. devastator should be treated as a subspecies or a distinct species.
Classification
Animalia-Arthropoda-Insecta-Orthoptera-Caelifera-Acrididae-Melanoplinae-Melanoplini-Melanoplus-M. devastator
Image: ©Alice Abela