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9-year-old Madeline Landecker from Arkansas discovered a rare, unique pink grasshopper while walking to her family barn in Benton, Arkansas, on March 14.
The young girl possesses a deep interest in living creatures and is an aspiring ve. She owns nine chickens, two dogs and a rabbit. She immediately recognized the bug, having seen it in books dedicated to animals. Speaking to KARK, Madeline said:
"When I was littler, I saw one in a book. I thought it would be cool to have.
Madeline picked the grasshopper up in a few seconds and later named it Millie. She also discovered that the grasshopper was missing a leg. She suspects that one of her chickens got Millie's missing leg.
What is a pink grasshopper?
As per experts, pink grasshoppers are very rare and have only about 1% chance of being found. They derive their color from a lack of black pigment (eumelanin) combined with excessive red pigment or phaeomelanin production.
Speaking to NBC News, Penn State University entomology assistant research professor Michael Skvarla said:
"The reason pink grasshoppers are so rare is also not known, but it's likely a combination of uncommon genetics and predation, since pink individuals aren't camouflaged and are easy for predators to see."
In July 2023, a Welsh man Gary Phillips spotted the pink creature among his garden flowers while tending to his plants in Llandegfan, Anglesey. In an interview with the BBC, Phillips shared that he had never seen such a vivid color before;
"I had to proper focus on what I'd seen, and realized it was a pink grasshopper which I thought has got to be rare."
At the same time, a man in Lincoln, Jak Ward also spotted the rare insect in his garden. As per Ward, a keen micro photographer, the insect was somewhere between 15 and 20mm in length. He also added,
"I didn't think much of it at first until I looked up how rare seeing one actually is. I was pretty excited and grabbed the camera and managed to get a few pictures before it jumped away."
Professor Karim Vahed, from conservation charity Buglife, speaking to the BBC, said that Meadow Grasshoppers are the most common form of pink grasshoppers, while Common Green Grasshoppers and Field Grasshoppers could also appear pink.
Madeline Landecker took the pet grasshopper, Millie, to her school on March 15 to show it to her classmates. She is known as the "bug expert" because of her interest in bugs.
