Grasshopper Emergency

A huge grasshopper came our way one day couldn’t help but catch it, couldn’t let it get away Just wanted to observe it, the biologist in me never saw such a thing with its kind of beauty Bright green wings on a plump green body I swear it really looked ever so juicy! We sure didn’t know what to feed it so we put in some leaves, just a little bit I guess it ate too much, for its belly looked bigger Uh-oh. Toilet emergency for this poor hopper! It seemed to stiffen up, even concentrating who knew that insects also did that kind of thing?! At first it was just a little bit, coming out of its butt then suddenly it seemed, it was spilling out its guts!! It was something light brown and a little bit frothy, we were mesmerized, but we also felt guilty... Whatever did we feed it?! It’s been five minutes long and still it wasn’t done, something was wrong! Poor green hopper, with a bad case of the runs Please don’t die on us, will promise you the sun! It was super bubbly, it was frothy, it looked even kind of sticky Hoo boy how I wished that I studied entomology! The grasshopper looked so tired after that ordeal But wait up, its tummy looked like it could use a meal! We looked a bit closer, and saw these light brown grains Whatever was it? It was driving us insane! My sisters and I honestly never saw such a thing so decided to do a bit of web researching... Turned out that grasshopper wasn’t even pooping... it was actually doing a lot of egg-laying!! We found out it was so rare to witness that for grasshoppers laid eggs by burying their butts! **note: we actually improvised on this, felt bad for that momma grasshopper to lose those babies, so we buried those pods ourselves in a patch of soil...we released the grasshopper the day after and I think less than a month later, we saw these baby grasshoppers hop, hop, hopping about! It was truly amazing! ***submitted for Amy’s “I Saw with My Own Eyes” contest :)