On 5 July, I witness for the first time, the moulting of a grasshopper in a park. I was trying to figure out the identity of an unknown shrub when I noticed a grasshopper on a twig exhibiting wave-like movement with its body. My instinct told me that a moulting process was ongoing. True enough, the whole process took place in front of my eyes in the next 15 minutes. I had the chance to watch a moulting cicada in July 2010 but not one from a grasshopper till this day.

This is a very common grasshopper in Singapore. If I was correct, the moulting nymph above should be the Short-horned Grasshopper (Xenocatantops humilis) and the 3 pictures below denoted the major transformation stages from a green to brown grasshopper. So far, I was not able to find a reference that link the nymph to the adult grasshopper.

I had not yet figure out whether the unknown shrub was a treelet of the Philippine Almond (Terminalia calamansanai) but the sighting of a moulting grasshopper was for sure, a great side event.