Plains Lubber Grasshopper

Plains Lubber

In August we made a short trip to Western Kansas for a much-needed getaway. We spent hours outdoors exploring short grass prairies and other habitats. One of the first places we visited was Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park in Oakley. I chose this location because of the massive insect diversity reported to be there. We had walked a few hundred yards into the short grass prairie, and I spotted one of my “most wanted” species to photograph, a Plains Lubber Grasshopper. Historically these were called locusts and occasionally appeared in massive numbers, eating everything in sight. There have been no swarms of this species in many decades. The last swarm was reported to have occurred in 2012 in Texas. They are found throughout the Great Plains, including Western Missouri, where small, isolated populations can be found. Another lubber, called the Eastern Lubber is making its way into Missouri on the Eastern side of our state. Currently populations are small, but in time and with climate changing the way it has been for decades, it might not be long, and they will range throughout our state.

Plains Lubbers are large flightless grasshoppers that are sure to leave an impression if you find one. Females may measure up to two and half inches in length with males significantly smaller. However, it isn’t the length that is impressive, it is the girth! These are very chunky grasshoppers! Not only are they large, but they are stunningly beautiful. In the southern regions of their range, they are mostly reddish-brown with green, pink and maybe even blue markings. In the Northern most parts of their range they are mostly green, with pink wing pads spotted with black dots. The legs are reddish near the body, and purple towards the end of the legs. The antennae are bluish-brown. They have a ridge along the middle regions of the abdomen and thorax. They can be any variety of all these colors.

There seems to be discrepancies among professional entomologists, as to whether the lubbers belong in the Acridae or the Romaleidae families of grasshoppers. Scientists can’t seem to definitively decide where to classify them. For now, Romaleidae seems to be the most frequently used classification. The name comes from a Greek word, and when translated into Latin means “strong of body.” This is an apt description of such a heavy-bodied, large grasshopper. The name lubber comes from the old English word lobre, which means lazy, or clumsy, which again is a very good description of this grasshopper. These large grasshoppers have small wings that barely extend half their body length making it impossible for them to fly. Instead, they are destined to a life of crawling or ambling clumsily across the landscape. They appear slow and awkward as they move from place to place. However, what they lack in gracefulness they more than make up for in their ability to climb and jump (MALES up to 9 feet)!

They are found in a variety of open to semi-open grassland settings, such as short grass prairies, tallgrass prairies, scrublands, along weedy roadsides, vacant lots and field margins. Typically, their food of choice is common sunflowers, ragweed, feverfew and other forbs. They can be the occasional pest of cotton, especially if their number exceeds the threshold for the size of the field. This is generally one adult per 3 feet of row or two adults per square yard in bordering vegetation being capable of causing significant injury. The damage is often limited to the first 40 or 50 rows of cotton along the field margins. However, because this species rarely occurs in any significant population density, the risk to cotton and other crops is low. Beyond the occasional rare annual outbreak followed by years of small population density, they are not considered a significant threat to agriculture. Because of their preference for plants that are often viewed as weeds, such as common sunflowers and ragweed, they are often considered beneficial. This species also consumes insect carrion on a regular basis and has also been observed killing insects to eat.

FUN FACT: When their populations surge, they may make road conditions hazardous as their dead bodies can make roads slick, particularly in the summer months. 

Like many insects, they possess defensive strategies to avoid being eaten by hungry predators. Their first line of defense is their coloring. Bright coloration in nature often warns predators they are poisonous or at the very least that they taste bad. The second line of defense is their ability to flap their tiny wings rapidly and to secrete a toxin sprayed from their thorax. Many of the plants they consume give them these beneficial toxins which make them unpalatable to predators. Because they feed on a wide variety of plants at different times of the year, they take in a wide variety of toxins at different times, making it impossible for would-be predators to build up a tolerance for the chemical defense they utilize.

Vertebrates like birds and small mammals have learned to avoid them, and those too young or too naïve to know better will find themselves gagging, regurgitating, or even dying from the experience. Even an opossum, which seems able to eat anything, will avoid them. An exception is loggerhead shrikes, which have figured out that if they impale the lubbers onto a thorn or other sharp object and wait a few days for the toxins to become diluted in the dead grasshopper they can then consume it. Invertebrate predators like large mantids are unaffected by the toxins but find it difficult to manage such large insects covered in thick exoskeletons and large spiny legs, so most avoid expending the energy it would take to overcome one.

Their third line of defense is to hiss loudly startling a predator, which may make it think twice before messing with such an ill-tempered adversary. Having all these defenses seems like overkill, but for an insect incapable of flight and lacking the ability to physically escape (unless they can jump away without being followed) they must employ other means to avoid being eaten.

An often-overlooked historical fact about the Plains Lubber is its contribution to science. Over one hundred years ago, when scientists were just beginning to study/understand chromosomes, genetics and cell division they used the Plains Lubber as their laboratory “guinea pig” for lack of a better description. The chromosomes of this species are exceedingly large for their body size and observing them under a microscope was easier than other options available at the time. This made the Plains Lubber a useful organism for studying genetic processes like mitosis and meiosis.

In 1902, Walter Sutton used this species to demonstrate that chromosomes carry the physical basis for Gregor Mendal’s theory of inheritance, thus forming a cornerstone of the chromosomal theory of heredity. The plains lubber grasshopper and other grasshopper species continue to be subjects of genetic research and analysis, leading to further discoveries about chromosome behavior. How cool is that?

This grasshopper is sure to impress in a wide variety of ways, whether it is for its ability to control weeds, and consume vast amounts of dead insects, or its overall beauty and size or for its contributions to science, this is one insect you won’t soon forget.