Excerpts from Jim Conrad's
Naturalist Newsletter

from the September 6, 2018 Newsletter issued from Rancho Regenesis in the woods ±4kms west of Ek Balam Ruins; elevation ~40m (~130 ft), N~20.876°, W~88.170°; central Yucatán, MÉXICO
MATING ABRACRIS DILECTA
I needed a general picture of a grasshopper, so I went into the garden and photographed the first grasshopper I saw. It turned out to be a mating pair, as you can see below:

ABRACRIS DILECTA

Of course I wondered which species it was, so on the Internet I looked for pictures matching ours. The only match found was identified as "LACTISTA PELLEPIDUS, possibly?"

*UPDATE: In 2024 there's much more information on the Internet, and this looks like ABRACRIS DILECTA, with no English name, though it's one of very many species known as short-horned grasshoppers.

Not much information is available about it, though it appears to occur from the Yucatan Peninsula south into northeastern South America. Within this area it's described as occurring in shrubby habitats.

In our above picture, did you notice the little red invertebrate atop the top grasshopper apparently parasitizing him? The picture reminds me of a poem written in 1733 by Jonathan Swift, sent to me a while back by volunteer bug identifier Bea Ontario:

“So, naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.”