Romaleid

Like many New World romaleids, these insects, which are called bush locusts (Bishop 1940; Kevan 1949), are often social in the nymphal or hopper stage and become more solitary as adults.

Females of the romaleid grasshopper Romalea guttata generate a defensive secretion in glands surrounding the metathoracic tracheal trunks and the secretion is stored in the tracheal lumina.

There are several species and subespecies of the neotropical romaleid grasshopper genus Chromacris (which means colored grasshoppers), which, when adults, all follow the green-yellow blue pattern as in this male of Chromacris psittaccus pacificus, but they can be told apart by subtle differences in the spotting and striped pattern.