It is very common for grasshoppers to have two color morphs. We have been working with a local species, the Admirable Grasshopper, to understand the causes of this color variation and the potential behavioral consequences. The admirable grasshopper has a distinctive green-brown polymorphism. We tested the hypothesis that dietary water content drives this variation, reasoning that grasses with low water contest were likely to indicate a predominantly brown background (i.e. because the grass would be dry), while grasses with high water content would indicate a green background, and therefore that the grasshoppers should match their coloration to the anticipated background. However, we found no evidence that this was the case, although we did find other effects of water content on growth and mating. We followed up on this experiment by examining whether grasshoppers preferred backgrounds that matched their own coloration, but found no evidence for this. Our current work tests whether environmental temperatures explain color polymorphism.

Relevant Publications:

I. de la Hera and M.S. Reichert. 2022. No indication of background color matching in a population of the brown-green polymorphic Admirable Grasshopper (Syrbula admirabilis). Journal of Insect Behavior 35: 114-126

I. de la Hera and M.S. Reichert. 2021. Water content in diet affects growth and timing of female first mating, but not coloration, in the admirable grasshopper (Syrbula admirabilis). Invertebrate Biology 140: e12356