Joann Merritt's Essays

Red-Winged Crackers
February, 1998

Even though Don and I have walked the road to Mulberry Lakes innumerable times we still find new examples of nature’s diversity along the way.

The dirt road that circles inside the small pasture east of the Vireo Thicket is a favorite sunning spot for grasshoppers in the fall. We counted 65 one morning but there are a hundred or more of the Red-winged Crackers (my name for them) in the afternoon.

Their blackish overall color blends well with their surroundings and if they would keep still we would probably overlook them. However, they are very visible and audible as they leap about with a cracking sound while flashing their red-orange wings.

Burr wrote an interesting article on grasshoppers in the September 1995 issue of The Phalarope, but this fall I realized for myself how fascinating they can be. According to Burr the scientific name for these grasshoppers is Arphia pseudo arphianiatana but he agrees that “Red-winged Cracker” is easier to say and remember.

Watching the grasshoppers was definitely more fun than the results of exploring the flea-infested fox dens west of Mulberry Lakes. You do not want to go there, but that’s another nature story.

The Red-winged Crackers disappeared when it got cold, but on warm sunny days there are still a few to add movement, sound and color to our walk.