meadow grasshopper

This morning I was out back checking the banana flowers -curious to see how they had changed since yesterday. I saw the hibiscus bush had some yellow leaves that needed to be picked off. As I reached in . . . . I spied this fairly large grasshopper in the middle of the hibiscus bush and gasped! He didn't mind me and stayed where he was without moving too much. I was able to get a number of photos of him. Later I looked up crickets and grasshoppers and with a little research found out he was a meadow grasshopper or Chorthippus parallelus.

I would say he is about 3 or 4 inches (7-10 cm) long - go LARGE if you dare! I love the basketweave pattern on his legs, the honeycomb on his wings and the little dots on his tail. I feel lucky to have these little creatures hanging out in the garden with me . . . I also ran into some lizards on the way inside the house!