Our grasshoppers are now on their last legs: The females are laying pods of eggs and soon will die with the males. The eggs will hatch in the spring, when our joint will start jumping again. Maine reportedly is home to about 35 species of short-horned grasshoppers. What probably are the two most common are shown here.
First, you see above the red-legged grasshopper. It’s a brownish green short-horn with reddish legs and red shin bone (lower leg) segments. It mostly basks and hops in fields, pastures, and gardens.
Below, you’ll ee the Carolina grasshopper (aka Carolina locust and “road duster”). It blends in with the surfaces of dirt roads and usually goes unnoticed until it flies up, opens its yellow-bordered black wings and flutters erratically like a drunken butterfly that has to keep making emergency landings.
(Images taken in Brooklin, Maine, on September 1 and 8, 2026.)