EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

Flightless Victim of the Oil?

Eastern Lubber Grasshopper (Romalea microptera), Family Acrididae [also Romeleidae]
Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserve, Louisiana, USA

Explanation:  Black as oil is this common grasshopper of southeastern U.S.  

That is an ironic comparison.  I photographed this colony in a pristine bald cyrpress bayou along the Louisiana coast bordering the Gulf of Mexico ... mere days before the horrendous BP oil gusher disaster.  

These are eastern lubber grasshoppers ... probably the most common grasshopper in eastern U.S., and a species that can become locally abundant enough to cause serious damage to agricultural crops, especially in Florida.  Should the rampant oil slick eventually invade this incredible swamp preserve, these grasshoppers will doubtless become victims, as the species is flightless and could not evade the onslaught.  

So why worry?  

This species is part of the native biodiversity of the southeast U.S.  We must ask ourselves, to what extent would it be acceptable to cause even the local demise of a species because of an extraordinary event of pollution, even if the species is undesirable in a small portion of its range elsewhere?