Remember all the Scudderia mexicana handfeeding? Guess what, even more severe nervous wrecks like Schistocerca nitens can also be picked up and given snacks too! This specimen had highly idiosyncratic eating habits very unlike those of the tettigoniids (which strongly prefer high-energy items like sugar and pollen). It took a few bites out of lawn grasses (never seen any other polyphagous grazing invert eat lawn!) and white clover foliage intermittently while wandering; it refused to eat white clover flowers and had minimal interest in wet raisin, and after some persuading and hesitation decided to violently ingest an entire dandelion inflorescence. It then palpated and possibly chewed a second dandy but was evidently not interested, and later flew off.
Despite the refusal of dandy two, no alarm behaviors were induced upon offering, so here is a video demonstrating proper etiquette when feeding easily frightened Orthoptera! Note that S. mexicana and Phaneroptera nana appear to be only frightened by sudden tactile stimuli, while most S. nitens specimens (not this one of course) will panic when they see close-range abrupt movements.
No comments:
Post a Comment