The Crau grasshoppers were busy at the start of the summer! Having become adults within a few weeks timeframe and after undergoing five moults, the grasshoppers from the three breeding stations (La Barben Zoological Park, Besançon Museum and Cathy Gibault’s breeding farm) have been “working” to bring forth the 2024 generation!
© Cathy Gibault
Thus, in June in particular, mating and egg-laying came one after the other in the terrariums.
Nesting boxes filled with Crau soil enabled the females to lay their eggs by pressing the tip of their abdomen into the substrate.
The rice grain-looking eggs are surrounded by a foam produced by the female as she lays her eggs. This foam mixes with the soil and solidifies to form a rigid protective envelope.
Each clutch, called an ootheca, can contain up to 19 eggs.
These were quickly transferred to the aviaries set up in the Crau, to be incubated under natural conditions. There are now more than 150 oothecae waiting to hatch at the end of March.
The end of 2025 saw changes in the LIFE team!
“SOS Insects: Reintroduction and Conservation”. This is the theme of the conference to be held on May 5 and 6, 2026, in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). It is organized by the Conservatoire d’espaces naturels de Provence-Alpes-Côte ...
Managing the Crau Plain Grasshopper habitat, which is one of the LIFE project’s main objectives, partly involves improving the living and working conditions of the Crau’s shepherds, as the presence of the latter on site ...
