The world is full of countless wonders. Some we’re likely to see often, like trees and flowers or bees and ladybugs, but others are so rare that, when found, it’s considered a once-in-a-lifetime event. That’s the kind of experience folks get when they manage to find a pink “grasshopper.”
Although related to grasshoppers and crickets, these rare little guys are actually called katydids. So far, it seems that only four have been found and recorded in the United States. One of those discoveries recently took place in Louisiana by a woman named Mary Vesich Phuphanich.
Mary discovered the pink katydid while mowing her lawn, no doubt excited to share it with her to kiddos. And thanks to an experience she had when she was a kid herself, Mary knew exactly what she wanted to do with her discovery –she gave it a new home at the Audubon Insectarium.
“When I was a kid we had given a snake to the zoo, and it was really cool for us to be able to go back and see that we had given the snake … so, for my kids, it was awesome to be able to bring the katydid here,” Mary said. “We named the katydid Jewels, and so we’re just excited that it has a little family to go to now.”
As rare as these katydid sightings are, another one happened earlier this year in April. This one was found by an eighth-grade Arkansas student, Kewana Fuller, while she was out searching for bugs during recess.
Her brother fittingly named their new friend Raspberry Lemonade and, last we heard, she was still taking care of him at home.
“I stumbled across it and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, is that a grasshopper?'” Kewana recalled. “My mind was just blown because I’ve never seen something like it before.”
According to KY3, we each have about a 1% chance of stumbling upon one of these vibrant creatures ourselves, meaning that most of us never will. But isn’t it something to live in a world where we can still be introduced to them?
Watch Mary’s katydid, Jewels, arrive at her new home in the video below.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!
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