Although there are many grasshoppers, the Dracotettix Monstrosus is the most interesting. The animal I researched was the Dracotettic Monstrosus. It is dull in color, and is found in North America. This essay is so people looking up this animal can learn about it.

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Dracotettix Monstrosus is commonly called the Dragon Lubber. Females are about 2.5 inches, and the males are about 3 inches. The colors are dull and range from dirty white, gray, brown, or black. Sometimes the can be one of those colors, a few, or all of them. An adaptation that it has is camouflage, because it mostly lives in the desert, it blends with the sand. Therefore their characteristics help them camouflage very well in their habitat.

Many people have never seen the Dracotettix Monstrosus . They are found in North America, mostly in the deserts. There is about 500 being tracked today. Their population is decreasing slowly. Therefore people are trying to conserve the Dracotettix Monstrosus. So if you ever get the chance to see on you should.

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Dracotettix Monstrosus are cannibalistic, and Herbivorous, but they prefer to eat grass. They also feed on leaves, cereal crops, and other plants. They don’t have a distinct mouth, but they have pinchers, or mandibles to tear off and chew foods. Their predators are birds, lizards, and humans. In many countries they are eaten for protein. Even though they don’t have many predators they have the worst, humans.

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My Animal is important because it helps fertilize soils. Also it is very cool that it can camouflage and the male have larger wings, even though they are flightless. To conclude my research, it was hard for me to search this amazing grasshopper, but I’m glad I got the Dracotettix  Monstrosus instead of my other options, because I was very interesting.

Author: Marissa S.
Published: 3/2013

Sources: http://209.20.75.37/observations/464, http://bugguide.net/node/view/255114, http://tolweb.org/tree?group=caelifera, http://newsdesk.org/2010/03/a-grasshopper-plague-is-at-hand-in-u-s/, http://acrida.info.

Photo Source: http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/orthopt/Dracotettix%20monstrosus.htm