Big Bend National Park: The Ant and the Grasshopper PG-13

The Ant and the Grasshopper, Aesop's Fables. Credit: Milo Winter. Source: Library of Congress.

Yes, well.

There's Aesop's version of the ants and the grasshopper, and then there's Big Bend National Park's version.

While visiting the camp store next to the Chisos Visitor Center, I walk by a dead grasshopper.

Dead grasshopper and living ant, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

Something about it catches my eye. Ooh, those yellow sac-like things. Ooh, there's movement; what's that? Ahh, a red, translucent ant is excavating within and without the carcass. I need a closer look.

Dead grasshopper and living ant, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.

What are those yellow things? Grasshopper guts? Eggs? The grasshopper has a metallic sheen.

A short film:

I still don't know what those yellow ovoid sacs are. Maybe spiricles? Britannica offers an image of these below:

Grasshopper spiricles. Credit: Britannica.

A final look at the remains of the Big Bend grasshopper:

Dead grasshopper and living ant, Big Bend National Park, Texas. September 2017.