Grasshopper Verses Locust

Even with my love of nature and the great outdoors I realizes my lack of country knowledge must make it glaringly obvious that I was born and raised in the city.  After  Taken For Granted's comment on this post, I  wondered if I had mistaken a locust for a grasshopper. After a bit of research into the difference, I realized I had. 

I discovered that grasshoppers are green, don't fly and are solitary creatures. I also discovered that when food is scarce they morph into locusts. I guess the one in the shot above hadn't completed it's transformation.

I learned that locust are brown, yellow or pink. That they prefer large groups, and not only fly but fly great distances. Of course all the while eating massive amounts of vegetation and each other. I am not sure how many there were, but there was a lot of them. 

They were all over the sidewalk, grass and side of the building.  Some were flying, some hoping and others just sitting there. A few were green but most were brown.

My youngest daughter hates bugs of any sort so she was not excited when she started down the sidewalk only to be swarmed by dozens of these creatures. Here is a shadow shot of her as she stands frozen and pleading with me to get her the heck out of there.....LOL

This little girl found them very interesting and was chasing them.

 

As for me I found them interesting to photograph but I sure hope they didn't do much damage to the farmers fields.