Leptacris monteiroi monteiroi, a very convincing grass-mimicking grasshopper.
The past few days have been a blur of activity as Piotr taught a bioinformatics workshop at the Community Education Center (CEC) in Gorongosa. I came along for the ride and did a lot of collecting at the CEC myself. The place was swarming with grasshoppers of all sorts. Many were common species, but quite a few strange individuals turned up in my sweep net as well, including one of the coolest grasshoppers in Gorongosa (in my opinion): Leptacris monteiroi monteiroi. This animal is very long and thin, a perfect dry grass mimic. It has a stunning mother-of-pearl stripe running down its thorax, the true color of which cannot be captured in a photo. Below are a few of my shots of this awesome animal.
A closer view of the head and thorax.
The series of regular, parallel stridulatory veinlets in his wing mark him as a member of the subfamily Hemiacridinae.
Leptacris on my hand for size comparison.
The Incorrigible Entomologist 