grasshopper with wasp

Class: Hexapoda (animals with six legs - includes all insects)
Order: Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids and crickets)
    ortho = straight and ptera = wings
Family: Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers)
Species: undetermined
Common Name: grasshopper (very general)
Date: 2001 August 14
Place: Guadalupe Mountains National Park
    Bowl Trail

There is a small black wasp riding on the crest of the grasshopper where its wings meet its abdomen. The wasp is probably a parasitoid (in this case, the grasshopper host will die as a result of the feeding activity of any juvenile wasp or wasps).

different individual from the side

different individual of same species
2001 August 14 on the Bowl Trail

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Note: This is a personal web site and is not affiliated with the National Park Service or Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Contact information for the author, Ron Lyons, is accessible through the Index Page referenced below. Thank you.