Found this little critter while gardening, never seen anything like it before and don’t know what it’s called. It does have a body like a locust, but the head on the locusts I remember is not as pointed and they’re normally brownish in colour…
Any idea what this thing is?
Comments
Green Insect
Not sure, but this could be a Green Katydid (Family Tettigoniidae, Order Orthoptera).
Green Insect
kool, never seen this before in Bahrain. Hehe i would not want to touch or even be near that thing, it looks poisonous .
Green Insect
nice pic….I have no Idea what it is though! I’ll ask one of my friends who is studying biology and is an insect enthusiast after the weekend.
I rather a big shock on about the first night I was at college when I finished using the bathroom and went to wash my hands and there was a massive stick insect on the soap dispensar (at least 8″ long!). Some of the things i’ve seen here (australia) in terms of insects are just crazy….and I have the feeling that most the them could, if they wanted to, kill me!
gald your enjoying your camera!
Re(5): Green Insect
There’s a colony of scorpions living somewhere in southern England, apparently the result scorpions arriving in shiploads of fruit and then breeding. We also get giant banana spiders arriving the same way. They are serious horrors, those banana spiders.
Ash
Green Insect
I don’t care if that bug was from Australia or not; it’s quite creepy-looking.
Importing other species into non-native areas is usually a bad idea. Look what happened when Humans imported themselves out of Africa! 😀
Green Insect
First time I see this insect in Bahrain, I’ve seen it in a forest before. Well taken shot I’d have to say.
Green Insect
Is this the only one in your garden, or does it have any friends?
And has it been eating up the leaves of your plants?
Re: Green Insect
don’t know and don’t know! As there are almost no plants left in the garden now other than potted ones, I doubt that there are any more. this one might have flown off, however, I’ve not been in the garden all day therefore cannot answer your questions.
Green Insect
There are only 7 native plants and a handfull of birds that are native to Hawai’i. The mongoose was imported to control something or other and it almost wiped out several rare native bird species. They keep finding brown tree snakes from Guam in containers and on the ground around the port. If it manages to establish its self here it will do what it did to Guam. It virtually wiped out the native forest birds of Guam. Twelve species of bird unique to the island have disappeared as a direct result of brown tree snake predation.
They have even found it in Texas where I believe it voted Republican 🙂
billT
I just had to post on this thread
because I couldn’t believe that an insect received 16 comments! Must be a slow day here in the den…. 😀
tee hee!
PM
Re: Green Insect
no I don’t think so. the one I saw was at least 5 inches long and is quite slim, almost cigar-shape
Re: Green Insect
nah, don’t think so… it looked stupid, with the big eyes that it had, it allowed me to get very close to it rather than fly away. It actually jumped up and stayed on my t-shirt as I was pulling a plant out of the ground and just sat there. I picked it up and it flew away to rest on the plant you see in the picture.
Re(1): Green Insect
It looks rather like a Giant Green Slantface, which is a species of grasshopper usually found in the lusher parts of Australia: http://www.geocities.com/brisbane_grasshoppers/Longheaded.htm
Re(2): Green Insect
WELL DONE! That’s it exactly, down to its purple abdomen colour. Thanks for that.
Re(3): Green Insect
Glad to have helped. Now the big question is, how did it get all the way from Australia to Bahrain? (and does it have a valid immigration visa?)
Ash
Re(4): Green Insect
Poisonous snakes? We don’t have any in Bahrain thank you very much!
Now that I’ve got your attention, there is virtually no way that you can close your borders to vermin and insects. Global trade as it is, things like these will get through in a box of fruit and veg or simply out of holds of ships.
The wonder is that they will adapt relatively quickly to their new environment.
I remember several years ago when we travelled to Australia, the passengers were SPRAYED with some sort of solution before they disembarked, the same if I remember correctly happened a few years later when I went to the States. I’m unsure however if they subject the baggage and holds to the same treatment… I just thought they didn’t like smelly passengers!
Re(5): Green Insect
Mahmood
There are some posionous snakes in and around Bahrain. The only land based one is a Sand Snake (with rear fangs) and I am told is not very aggressive and basicly is only found on the back end of the Island. Riffa and points south. There are also several species of poisonous sea snakes around the island. I saw a couple in October washed up on the beach.
I bet your grasshopper friend hitched a ride on some plants being imported from Australia. I find little tree frogs sometimes in my imported plants and various interesting looking “bugs” from time to time here. This despite the plants going through a quarantine period and customs. I have even heard of an incident with some plants being brought into the US from India that had a baby Cobra in the mix. YIKES.
Re: Green Insect
Even the bugs in Texas have sense enough to vote Republican.
Steve
Re: I just had to post on this thread
In Bahrain we frequently find The Deaths Head Hawkmoth, of Silence of the Lambs fame. The first one I caught was 6inches from wingtip to twingtip, and when captured issued a loud alarm like sound. It was so big we put it in an ornamental birdcage my wife has been using as a plant display.
Then on an orange tree we have in the garden I found 22 larvae,the smallest of those (bright green in colour)was 3 inches long. They are harmless and beautiful.
Mahmood, when I was in Malaysia I met a “Bug Man” who sold me a Malaysian tree nymph. It looks just like a leaf and the one I have is 11 inches long! I’ll send you a picture later on ihn the week.
We also have about 8 different species of dung beetle, with the Rhino being the largest. Cicadas at certain times of the year, and I did catch, and destroy, several scores of locust that had made it across Saudi from Africa after the plagues they had to endure in January.
My least favourite insect? Steve.
Live long and prosper!
Re(1): I just had to post on this thread
Hey we have our very own BugMan on the island! Remind me NEVER to come to your house!
Re(1): I just had to post on this thread
[quote]PT: My least favourite insect? Steve. [/quote]
I am but a Socratic gadfly in this forum.
Steve
Green Insect
Would a Praying Mantis in Bahrain be Sunni or Shia?
Re: Green Insect
It would be Shunni.