The colour-changing grasshopper

The chameleon grasshopper changes colour when it’s exposed to high temperatures

By AG STAFF • Reading Time: < 1

Image credit: Michael Whitehead

Says Michael, is an ecologist at the Australian National University in Canberra and a self-taught photographer:

“My work provides many great opportunities to blend my love of photography with documenting and communicating science’s ongoing efforts to understand nature.

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A colleague of mine, Dr. Kate Umbers visited during fieldwork bringing along a member of her study species, a male chameleon grasshopper (Kosciuscola tristis). These handsome grasshoppers inhabit the Snowy Mountains and above a certain temperature, they exhibit a remarkable colour change from brown to turquoise. The purpose of this change remains unclear and is the subject of ongoing research.

I set this shot up in a homemade cardboard and paper tabletop studio. The white paper diffuses and softens the flash, which is placed off camera, to the right and slightly behind the lens.”

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