Natalie Sansone and her family are “not usually bug people” but the family has welcomed a rare pink grasshopper into their northeast London, Ont., home after finding it hopping across their driveway.
Sansone and her husband, Ryan Seed, were walking home from school with their 3-year-old and 5-year-old on Tuesday afternoon when Seed spotted the pink grasshopper in front of the house.
“We all kind of dropped our stuff and got down to the ground to look and sure enough, there it was just hopping across the driveway,” said Sansone.
When Sansone ran inside to grab her camera for a picture, Seed began researching the creature. The family decided to put the insect in a box their kids used to view insects after Seed read online that pink grasshoppers are rare and likely to be eaten.
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When Sansone ran inside to grab her camera for a picture, Seed began researching the creature.
The hot pink grasshopper is an oddity, but experts say that’s less a result of its genes and more about its attractiveness to predators.
The pink grasshoppers would be more common if they weren’t eaten by birds, small rodents and other insects.
The family has since transferred their grasshopper, now named “Bubbles” (a nod to the creature’s resemblance to bubblegum), from the insect box into a more spacious terrarium.
The grasshopper, commonly known as a Carolina locust, is a nymph, meaning it is immature and has no wings.
If other Londoners encounter a pink grasshopper, Marshall has simple advice: "Take some pictures and admire it.
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