Strong-horned Grasshopper
Male, Antenna
Ellura
Strong-horned Grasshopper
Male, Fastigium
 
                      
Strong-horned Grasshopper (Retuspia validicornis)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Crickets, Grasshoppers & Katydids (Orthoptera)
Family: Short-horned Grasshopper (Caelifera: Acrididae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Strong-horned Grasshopper (Retuspia validicornis)
This Photo:     🔍Male, Hind leg🔎

Thank you Robert Read & Matthew Connors for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
This is the most southern record of this species we can find.
It's been hot and dry; we are into the 2nd year of a drought. Perhaps more Northerly species are progressing south.
This male was ~26mm long.
Very similar to the Bark-mimicking Grasshopper, we have shown a number of angles of the head to help show some of the differences between them.
Primarily the antennae are broader in perspective to the body, but eye patterns, fastigium shape, etc, all show differences when looking close up in details.

Similar Species: Bark-mimicking Grasshopper (Coryphistes ruricola)

Copyright © 2019-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 21-Nov-2019
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.