{"id":5460,"date":"2023-08-20T16:30:16","date_gmt":"2023-08-20T16:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/?p=5460"},"modified":"2026-08-23T09:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T09:53:12","slug":"2023-08-toad-grasshopper-in-lebanese-forest-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pawel.stefanoff.pl\/bugs\/posts\/2023-08-toad-grasshopper-in-lebanese-forest-en\/","title":{"rendered":"An awkward toad grasshopper slowly crawling in a Lebanese forest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While visiting a friend\u2019s family in southern Lebanon, his son spotted a truly bizarre creature: an awkward toad grasshopper, likely from the genus <em>Orchamus<\/em>. We ended up watching it for about fifteen minutes as it slowly scrambled up a tree trunk. These rare, plant-eating insects are famous for their incredible camouflage and massive size differences between males and females. Unlike their airborne cousins, toad grasshoppers have tiny, non-functional wings, relying instead on crawling across rocky deserts and mountain terrains. To survive the harsh, arid environments of the Levant, Israel, and Egypt, they sport a thick, rough, shield-like exoskeleton. This rugged armor makes them look exactly like lichen-covered pebbles or dried earth\u2014a defense so effective that even after it jumped onto the tree, I had a genuinely hard time spotting it until it made another move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While visiting a friend\u2019s family in southern Lebanon, his son spotted a truly bizarre creature: an awkward toad grasshopper, likely 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