Dictyophorus spumans

Dictyophorus spumans, the koppie foam grasshopper, rooibaadjie, or African foam grasshopper, is a species of grasshopper in the family Pyrgomorphidae indigenous to southern Africa. The name "foaming grasshopper" derives from the insect's ability to produce a toxic foam from its thoracic glands.^[2] The foam is created by a combination of hemolymph with air from the grasshopper's spiracles.^[3] Its genus Dictyophorus is closely related to Phymateus.

Dictyophorus spumans
Adult above, nymph below both D. s. spumans in Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden, South Africa
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Caelifera
Family:	Pyrgomorphidae
Genus:	Dictyophorus
Species:	D. spumans
Binomial name
Dictyophorus spumans (Thunberg, 1787)
Synonyms
Gryllus spumans Poecilocera spumans Petasia spumans Phymateus spumans Tapesia spumans[1]

Adult males are typically 4.5–5 cm (1.8–2.0 in) long and females typically 5–7 cm (2.0–2.8 in),^[4] but can grow up to a length of 8 cm (3.1 in).^[5] The neck shield has a warty surface, and the grasshopper's colors are highly variable but usually with at least parts that are contrasting and bright. It is toxic due to the poisons that it sequesters from its diet, which includes a large number of toxic and distasteful plants such as milkweed.^[5]

Subspecies

• D. s. subsp. spumans – South Africa
• D. s. subsp. ater – northern South Africa and Zimbabwe
• D. s. subsp. pulchra – eastern South Africa and Mozambique
• D. s. subsp. servillei – southern Africa
• D. s. subsp. calceata – southern Africa

Gallery

• 
  Eating Aloe flowers
• 
  Mating, note size difference
• 
  Dorsal view of D. s. spumans
• 
  Side view of D. s. spumans
• 
  D. s. pulchra
• 
  Ventral view
• 
  Releasing toxic foam from thoracic glands