[NatureNS] grasshopper

Date: Wed, 3 Sep 2008 01:03:05 -0300
From: Stephen Shaw <srshaw@Dal.Ca>
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Presumably it was a female and these were the mature eggs squidged out 
from the
abdomen.  In the larger locusts that we used to breed (species of 
Schistocerca,
Locusta) these are indeed like small grains of white rice about 3 millimeters
long, so would be a bit smaller in a large grasshopper.  The abdomen is
extremely extensible, and the female uses it to insert bunches of eggs an inch
or two down in, for instance, damp sand.  If the sand is warm and moist 
enough,
these hatch and dig out later as miniature grasshoppers, but without wings
until the last moult stage.  Incidentally, while it is fairly easy to rear
these insects in captivity in a home-made cage heated by a light bulb, it is
inadvisable to try this as you will become extremely sensitized to them after
some exposure. Everyone I know who has reared them has become allergic 
to their
presence via some protein dust that gets out into the air, or else is
transferred to the skin by handling the insects.

Insects work differently from vertebrates and take in oxygen and lose carbon
dioxide (CO2) through a set of small openings at either side of the body,
called spiracles, largely by diffusion.  The spiracles form the ends of a
series of tree-like air tubes called tracheae that branch inside the body, the
finest subdivisions of which penetrate the muscles and organs directly: gases
get to and from the tissues by direct contact, without going through the blood
system as in vertebrates.

If the question is how best to put down the damaged grasshopper 
quickly, it's to
take advantage of this system and replace the air with CO2 which will get into
the tracheae in milliseconds, anaesthetize the insect in a few 10s of seconds
then eventually kill it.  Though it's fairly easy to make from a modified fire
extinguisher, you probably won't have a handy supply of low pressure CO2.
Instead, you could take advantage of a trick pulled by some insect
photographers, used to quieten a feisty insect that won't keep still: 
put it in
a pill bottle in the freezer and leave it for 10-20 minutes.  If you get the
time right, when brought out again the insect will remain partially
cold-anaesthetized for a minute or two, long enough to shoot a few pictures
before it warms up again.  If you carry this on in the freezer for long enough
it will not recover (and eventually freeze), so that's your most humane and
least yucky method if you don't want to put it out for the birds or squish it.
Steve,
Halifax

Quoting Joyce Norris <whuzzy@ns.sympatico.ca>:
> This may sound ridiculous but I will only say I am an animal lover...
>
> I somehow partially tramped on a large grasshopper and injured part 
> of its lower abdomen. Stuff that looks like grains of rice has come 
> out from the injured area. I put him on a plant where he has stayed 
> the whole afternoon. I haven't the heart to jut tramp on him or 
> whatever. Any ideas? An ant or an earwig I  can kill, for whatever 
> reason not a large grasshopper
>
> Thx
> Joyce


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