Maybe you can explain to me the mutant grasshopper I found when I was about 13. The damnable thing had a spike at the ends of it's body, and it [censored] bit me when I captured it, but beyond the fact that it bit me and it had a spike, it looked identical to any other grasshopper I'd ever seen(I was cruel, I'd catch them and throw them in ants nests after I stirred the ants up. Always figured me getting bit by the mutant was cosmic justice. But yeah, I've seen a ton of grasshoppers, so I'm fairly sure the mutant was one too).
Probably the Sword-Bearing katydid or any sort of Cone-head katydid. They are green like a grasshopper and hop like one, but they have long antennae, big jaws and a sword on their backside - this sword is an ovipositor, I believe they use it to lay eggs in branches of trees, or under ground. http://bugguide.net/node/view/135012/bgpage contains pictures of them. They always bite me or try to when I pick them up, but it is fascinating with these is their species can be differentiated based on the little cone between their antennae.
If it was a short spike and definitely a grasshopper, more likely than not it was a large Melanoplus. They also bite, but not nearly as hard. The spike would have to be very short and is still an ovipositor, they open and close this to dig underground to lay eggs. All grasshopper females have this.
Orthoptera is split into two main groups: Caelifera and Ensifera. Ensifera is the group with the crickets, katydids, wetas and so on. As far as I know, most of these bugs have long spike or sword like ovipositors. They can be straight or curled in a scythe-like shape. It depends on where the species lays its eggs. I never heard of these being able to pierce skin, they are not sharp and sturdy enough. Bee stingers on the other hand, those are also ovipositors, but modified to be very sharp, short and hollow to inject venom.
Caelifera include all the grasshoppers, plus pygmy grasshoppers and pygmy mole crickets (Tridactylidae)
As for how I handle my insects, it varies.
With the lubber grasshoppers it is safe to gently pick them up by their thorax. Their reaction will probably be to twitch and in wild species they emit a foul odor, sometimes even hiss and open their small wings to show the pink underwing as a threat display. Mine don't do any of these things, instead I let them rest on my hand or chill on my desk. I have Azura sitting on the right-hand side of my keyboard right now, sometimes I'll put a piece of lettuce there and she'll nibble away at it while I play Oblivion. These hoppers almost never hop.
With the smaller grasshoppers, I let them jump into my hand by predicting the trajectory of their hop. I then gently close my hand around them. I only handle them to move them to the clean cage - since there are so many hoppers and they can get lost very easily if they escape, I set aside an empty cage that I set up with paper towel and food and move all the baby Banded Wing hoppers to this cage, after their old cage is empty I clean that one and that one is used the next time I change their food and substrate.
The technique with the crickets is similar, except I put all of them in an empty cage, clean their original cage and put them back. They hop, often, but in short hops that go straight forward. They also like to hang on the egg-crate and that's how I get most of them in. Any stragglers, I tip the cage over and let them walk over the edge into the cleaned cage.
With the roaches, similar to the lubbers, I gently pick them up by their thorax. With the babies I have to let them crawl onto my hand, or just guide them to wherever I need them. I move all the roaches out, clean their cage and put in new food, then put the roaches back. The babies are almost always under the piece of egg-crate and any stragglers I have I gently coax into my hand. The advlts, sometimes I'll work while one is sitting on my hand, their bug paws are large and sticky, so they won't fall off, and they are also very chill so they don't run away.
With the tiny mantises, it is key to act fast. They don't hop in long distances, but they can get freaked out and speed all over the place. It is key to be still and startle them as little as possible. Sometimes I squirt them gently with water, if they are thirsty they typically kneel down to drink. This keeps them occupied while I change their paper towel and give them a feeder insect.
With mantises that aren't quite advlt, I don't handle them, but they have by now gotten used to my hand and they'll crawl on my finger. When chill, they don't sit still that much, they love to look around and turn their head and look at things. They are very curious and alert. If they want to check something out, they'll crawl to it. Mantises also hop short distances.
With advlt mantises, they can still be quite active but it depends on the species. Males of small species fly like moths, they even buzz their wings to warm them up. Females are calmer but even at advlt-hood and even raising them from babies, sometimes I'll get a threat pose every now and then. It's neat to look at but afterward it takes patience to let them calm down. With many mantises, they will sit still and chill on my desk. This is because mantises wait for food to come nearby and then they stalk their prey and attack. Mantises on my desk often look at my computer screen and sometimes try to catch the mouse cursor. I use a test in MSPaint where I select a large black dot and move it around the screen, if the mantises is close to molting but still chases this dot, I feed them. If not, I provide them a lot of space and privacy, disturbing a mantis while they are molting is not a good idea. Last night I did this test and the mantis did not chase it, today she is a bit larger and her old exoskeleton is hanging right next to her. After a day or so, she'll start to feed again and will be starving. Older mantises sometimes stop eating for a while before molting, especially from the sub-advlt to advlt stage. This molt is the most stressful for me, since things can go wrong at the last moment and I'll have a crippled mantis on my hands. Sometimes they survive and just their wings or hind legs are messed up, but sometimes their forelegs are crippled and they are unable to feed themselves. But when the molt goes well, it is so rewarding, to have a mantis that started out as small as a mosquito to this graceful three to four inch long insect buddy.
» Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:27 pm 
