I have never in my life seen a purple grasshopper, but check this guy out!!! He is friend-colored AND friend-shaped
Ohhh!! This is a really cool find. Grasshoppers and katydids especially are prone to a condition called erythrism, which is an unusual reddish pigmentation in animals hair, skin, exoskeleton, etc. - either from the lack of other pigments or an excess of red pigments. Grasshoppers and katydids with this condition usually end up looking pink.
Unfortunately, these dudes don’t often make it to adulthood because they have no camouflage. This one in particular is a nymph, not an adult. Godspeed, lil dude, hope you get to grow up!
this is LEON, he is approximately four feet long, with four peets and a fully poseable body and tail. he is a guardian to all furbs and loves them all very much
this bug is insane. Its exoskeleton is so tough, if you try to pin a dead one, the pin will just bend. It can only be pierced with a small electric drill.
It’s immune to being stomped on or otherwise crushed with human force, and I’ve even read multiple anecdotes that they can survive being run over by a car.
They were originally called ironclad beetles just because their exoskeleton is so hard, but analysis has shown that their shell actually does contain iron- in addition to calcium, manganese and zinc.
Many invertebrates (including insects, polychaete worms and mollusks) have metal- reinforced jaws or other body parts, but this is the most metal in one animal that I’m aware of… no wonder it’s basically indestructible.
