Notes

Southeastern Lubber
Lubber Grasshoppers


One of the largest and slowest moving insects, lubbers can achieve 3 inches (7.5 cm) in length at maturity, and cause a great deal of damage to an orchid collection. Various species are found in various geographical areas of the United States: eastern lubbers (Romalea guttata, found from main North Carolina west through southern Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas to Texas and throughout Florida), horse lubbers (Taeniopoda eques, native to Texas and Arizona, down into Mexico), plains lubbers (Brachystola magna, most typically discovered on the meadows of the western part of the United States and Mexico) and southeastern lubbers (Romalea microptera, which expanded from North Carolina to Florida, west to Louisiana and northeast to Tennessee).


A swarm of nymphs can devoure whatever in their path.
Description
There is some variation among the different species, all are rather large and flightless as insects go, with females obtaining higher length at maturity than males. Distinctly colored and patterned, the immature ones have various coloration from their adult equivalents. All share the chitinous exoskeleton common of grasshoppers that helps protect them from predators and avoid dehydration.

Eastern lubbers are flightless, although not wingless. (6 cm) to more than 3 inches (8 cm) in length.

Unlike some of their less athletic cousins, horse lubbers have long hind legs that enable them to cover ranges of up to 20 times their own length in a single jump. These lubbers are black at maturity, with yellow markings and black-and-orange-striped antennae, and attain a length of 2 1/2 inches (6.4 cm).

Flightless plains lubbers are also capable of leaping from numerous inches to numerous feet using their extra-large hind legs. Their bodies are reddish brown in color, marked with greenish brown. Their wings are colored with ABOVE Southeastern lubber nymphs feeding on landscape foliage. reddish brown and black areas, and they have a row of light-colored dots on their abdominal areas. The tiniest of the lubbers, this insect is still fairly large, reaching up to 1? inches (4 cm) in length as an adult.

Adult southeastern lubbers can be found in two color pattern: mustard yellow with black markings, the southerners amongst them with a reddish stripe as well, or black with yellow stripes. They grow to be 2-- 2 3/4 inches (5-- 7 cm) in length, and are flightless.

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After mating, lubbers deposit caches of around 25 to 50 eggs, depending on the species, in the ground during the summer. In warmer areas, such as the southeastern United States, the hatching is previously, while for species such as the plains lubbers in the western parts of the country, later on spring is the expected arrival time for the young.

Habitat and Feeding
Each type of lubber has its preferred plant or plants on which it feeds in its natural environment, all are relatively catholic eaters and, given the chance, will usually cause damage to a broad variety of greenery. Young lubbers typically travel in big numbers, swarming and feasting on plant material as they go. Southeastern lubbers regular roadsides, field edges and gardens, noshing on ornamentals, vegetables and even citrus leaves.

Defensive Attributes
Lubbers have at their disposal a variety of fairly unpalatable means of defending themselves against threats from other creatures.

The bright pigmentation and patterning on a lubber's shell is an aposematic, or warning, pattern to predators that they are unpalatable to downright toxic. Lubbers ingest and take in substances in the plants they consume that, although safe to human beings and the lubbers themselves, are hazardous to numerous predators. These chemicals might kill smaller creatures such as birds or leave bigger animals quite ill after consuming a lubber.

If their color pattern is insufficient to caution off a prospective predator, the lubbers can producing a poisonous foam while making a loud hissing sound when threatened. In addition, like a lot of grasshoppers, they can likewise throw up a dark brown liquid (typically called tobacco spit) as a defense.


Lubber grownups are colorful and powerful in appearance.
Controls
Chemical control is effective only versus the nymph phase. There are several insecticides poisonous to insects that are registered for usage on fruits, ornamentals and vegetables, such as Cygon. These are not, however, authorized for usage on orchids. Chemical control is an alternative if control of the young lubbers on host plants for which the insecticides are approved is the objective. Otherwise, these insects are best eliminated by hand.

They can be handpicked from a favored plant or netted since most types are relatively slow moving and all are safe to people. Various orchid growers advise their own preferred lubber-control weaponry, including a brick, shoe, broom or perhaps the broad side of a machete, but squashing them does seem to be the preferred approach.

" Southeastern Lubber Grasshopper, Romalea microptera" Field Guides, Insects and Spiders: Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Cicadas. National Wildlife Federation.


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