Another lovely native! The two-striped or yellow-striped grasshopper. This might be the northern red tibia-ed subspecies (Melanoplus bivittatus femoratus). The details are quite lovely.
This is a special creature: it has a variable metabolism, so its internal temperature can vary. It means they aren't easily stressed by temperature and environmental fluctuations, since they have the ability to 'blend' with whatever's going on around them ... kind of like the idea of being cold-blooded.
They overwinter as eggs, which are food for many other critters.
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