Species introCountry intro
Male Chrysochraon dispar in Heesch, the Netherlands
Close to my home, each summer thousands of these grasshoppers emerge for a few weeks. In a dryland I regularly visit, each step you make in the tall grass triggers dozens of them to make a jump, making them easy to spot.
Regarding identification, I believe this to be the Chrysochraon dispar based on this reference photo (dutch):
http://www.soortenbank.nl/soorten.php?soortengroep=insecten&id=311
Other than the general visual similarity, one key trademark of the species are the black "ankles". If I'm right, this clearly is a male, as females of this species look grey.
Chrysochraon dispar lives in wet, unmown habitats such as Carex reeds, lake shore reeds, tall herb communities along streams, in glades, clear cuttings, etc. In the Alps, it rises in some places (such as in the western Valais) to 2000 m above sea level and then also inhabits drier habitats. I observed Chrysochraon dispar in drier nutrient-poor grasslands such as Juniperus heathland on the western Swabian Alb (Germany), but only where the grass and herb layer was dense and relative high growing and.. more
