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Devastator Locust Petting in San Bernardino, California

3,030 views · Published 25 March 2013 · 2:13 · Indexed 4 October 2026

Channel: Melvin Wei · 2013 · Pets & Animals

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Update on 2019/9/14: I think this is a devastator locust, Melanoplus devastator, of the same subspecies a picture is posted on the Wikipedia entry. 

Schistocerca nitens is a species of grasshopper that is also known as the vagrant grasshopper or the gray bird grasshopper. It's related to the swarming desert locust of the Old World, and is in the same genus. It's range covers the southwestern states in the United States of America and also parts of Central America. I found this one resting on a cactus in the hot afternoon desert sun of San Bernardino County, California. It was fully aware of my presence, but seemed thoroughly unmotivated to fly away to safety, somehow "trusting" that I would not harm it, choosing instead to lazily move around the cactus stems like a child being chased around a tree trunk.

The coloration of grasshoppers here is often cryptic and can vary. Grasshoppers, like lizards, are hard for me to identify, so if I am wrong in the species identification, please feel free to provide corrections in the comments.

The vagrant grasshopper can grow up to 10 cm in length. Whenever I see a grasshopper this big in the desert, I think of the word "locust." I was under the impression that only the Old World desert locusts of fame could swarm as locusts these days, but the vagrant grasshopper swarmed in Hawaii in 2004, wiping out 90% of the vegetation on one island! It is an invasive species there. The vagrant locust can fly at least 500 km across oceans! The mechanism by which grasshoppers transform into locusts and go from solitary animals to gregarious is unclear, but it is postulated that when grasshoppers live in such high densities that their antennae are constantly rubbing against each other, that triggers hormonal transformations that make them all take to the skies in search of greener places to ravage. Recent findings implicate the common brain chemical that we also possess, serotonin, as one of the triggers that, when injected into certain species of grasshoppers, can cause the rapid changes in coloration and physiology that create locusts. Locusts are faster, stronger, gregarious, and have darker, more noticeable coloration patterns than what they once were. Grasshoppers born to locusts during swarms are automatically locusts. Locusts can transform back into grasshoppers after several days. It is said that only 10 of 8,000 species of grasshoppers, presumably the really big ones, can transform into locusts, but who really knows?

Vagrant grasshoppers are sexually mature in 3-4 months of age. You can find all stages of this animal at any time of the year, but they are less active during fall and winter when it cools down. With this short generation span, one can easily imagine how a world without people and pesticides would lead to various species of large grasshoppers dominating the world and flocking in the sky, gathering in the largest gatherings of animals in history and changing the ecosystems they visit immediately! As an example, the Rocky Mountain locust was said to have had one swarm in the early 1900s that, if put side-by-side, covered the entire state of Colorado, U.S.A.!

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