Late Summer is Grasshopper Time!

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

They don’t reach their adult size until late summer or early fall.

One of the largest, and most common, grasshoppers in Illinois is the Carolina grasshopper, Dissosteira carolina, shown above.

With a body length of 1 to 2 inches (females are larger) and a wingspan of 3-4 inches, their bodies are golden tan to dark brown or even grey to green with black hindwings edged with a pale border.
You can see them flying around outside the nature center right now! (Their preferred habitat is manmade surfaces.)
To warm themselves up, each day Carolina grasshoppers bask in the sun along sidewalks, parking lots and dirt roads and are often
mistaken for a butterfly with their hovering flight.
This hovering flight, is performed by the males, along with a series of crackling noises, to attract a female.
- Once they mate, females will lay about 300 eggs in the soil using her ovipositor, a tube-like organ.
- The eggs will overwinter then hatch when the weather warms up next summer.
- Baby grasshoppers, called nymphs, look like miniature adults but without wings.