Biologist Spots Rare, Flightless Grasshopper in Virginia for the First Time in Nearly 80 Years
The last time anyone in the state had officially documented the Appalachian grasshopper was in 1946, and the species was once thought to be extinct
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A petite, flightless grasshopper once thought to be extinct has been spotted in Virginia for the first time in nearly 80 years.
The last time anyone officially documented the Appalachian grasshopper (Appalachia hebardi) in the state was in 1946, according to a January statement from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
But Andrew Rapp, a field zoologist with the department’s Natural Heritage Program, recently captured an adult female in the northwest part of Virginia—proof that the elusive species has not completely disappeared.
The Appalachian grasshopper is a small, ground-dwelling insect with “impressive camouflage,” according to the statement. Historical records show it had only ever been found in five counties in Virginia, as well as in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
No one had officially spotted the grasshopper in Virginia in decades. But reports of possible Appalachian grasshopper sightings popped up periodically on citizen science platforms like iNaturalist. So, Rapp had a hunch the insects might still be out there.
Last summer, he set out to try to find one. He ventured to several locations throughout the state where he thought Appalachian grasshoppers might live.
On September 3, Rapp was nearing the end of his search, walking hunched over along the side of a road in Augusta County, near the state’s border with West Virginia. While peering into a pile of gravel, he finally saw his mark.
“I was looking for it,” Rapp tells Radio IQ’s Roxy Todd. “I locked eyes with it. And I was like, ‘Oh! I think that’s probably it!’”
Moving carefully so as not to startle the grasshopper, he approached until he was close enough to use his net to capture it. Once he had his specimen, Rapp “slowly, methodically” went through the process of verifying its identity, “checking length of this and that, shapes, wing structures,” he tells McClatchy News’ Olivia Lloyd.
Why did it take so long to find an Appalachian grasshopper? Rapp says some of it comes down to luck—being in the right habitat at the right time of year, because the creature is “very restricted in its range,” he tells McClatchy News.
He also suspects the Appalachian grasshopper has been affected by landscape changes. The insects prefer young, open forests with tall grasses and shrubs. But as Virginia’s forests mature, that habitat is disappearing.
Appalachian grasshoppers may also be vulnerable to specific insecticides that are meant to target invasive spongy moth caterpillars and have been used in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to NatureServe, a nonprofit conservation organization. The group ranks the insect as “critically imperiled” in Virginia.
Moving forward, Rapp hopes his recent discovery will inspire other zoologists—both professional and amateur—to continue looking for the Appalachian grasshopper, including in the two other states in the creature’s historic range.
“It opens up a totally new world when you start looking closer on your typical walks, looking at the bugs that are running across a trail,” he tells Radio IQ.
