Grasshoppers

[djeyewater]

I went on a walk to my favourite field for butterflies today, I haven't been able to visit it for the past few weeks and was dissapointed to find all the ragwort and thistle flowers have gone over and so there were hardly any butterflies there.

It was very noisy and full of grasshoppers though, so I tried taking some pics of them, which was quite tricky as they kept jumping away and hiding under the grass.

Would appreciate an ID on these pics if possible. I think they are all meadow grasshoppers because they have small wings, but they are all different as well.

#1 Green, brown back(top), slightly yellow underside, speckled abdomen


#2 Brown all over


#3 Green, brown top, mainly black abdomen


#4 Green, green top, mainly black abdomen. Poor little chap had lost a back leg, still jumped away well though!


Also, do you think it would be okay if I gathered some up in a jar and took them back to my garden, hoping they will lay some eggs in my garden and we will get grasshoppers hatching in the garden next year? Our garden has some long grass they can live in.

Thanks

Dave

[Gill Catton]

All meadow grasshopper - Chorthippus parallelusI believe, based on the very short wings and slightly incurved side keels on the pronotum Colouring in grasshoppers can be very variable indeed even within a single species and can be very confusing!