A 9-year-old girl in Arkansas found a pink grasshopper while heading to her family’s barn earlier this month, according to NBC News. The girl, who hopes to be a veterinarian, caught it and has named it Millie.
Little is known about pink grasshoppers
The American Museum of Natural History shared in an X post that pink grasshoppers are pink due to an overabundance of red pigment, which makes it harder to hide from predators.
According to Michael Skvarla, an assistant research professor of entomology at Penn State University, pink grasshoppers are rare, with a lot of scientists believing their coloring is a recessive trait similar to albinism, per NBC News.
According to the University of Michigan, there are over 10,000 species of grasshoppers worldwide. They can grow up to 7 centimeters and prefer dry, grassy environments. More facts about them are listed below.
- Male grasshoppers tend to be more colorful while female grasshoppers are larger.
- Most grasshoppers only survive until winter since they cannot survive the cold.
- Some species can eat toxic plants and that toxin stays in their body as a predator repellant.
- Common predators for the grasshopper include wasps, ants, toads, lizards and birds.
- Grasshoppers are mostly solitary insects, but some species have been known to gather in groups by the millions.
Other pink grasshoppers found
In the past few years, there have been several sightings of pink grasshoppers. A boy in Kansas found a pink grasshopper outside his home last year, per Fox News, while several have been reported in the U.K.
In July 2023, several citizens in the U.K. reported seeing pink grasshoppers. The first was found in Anglesey in the yard of amateur photographer Gary Phillips, according to the BBC. Phillips crawled across his garden to take photos of the insect.
Per BBC, people most likely have a 1% chance of seeing a pink grasshopper.
The second pink grasshopper was found in Lincoln by a macro photographer, who was able to take a few photos before it jumped away, per BBC. According to the Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, pink grasshoppers are common in the U.K., although their coloring is rare, per BBC.
Texas has also had its fair share of pink grasshoppers. Back in 2020, a toddler found a pink grasshopper while playing outside in the backyard, per USA Today, while a man from Ohio found a pink grasshopper while on a walk in Texas in 2022, according to Fox News.