A bit of luck has befallen a young insect expert.
A 9-year-old girl and an ambitious veterinarian from Arkansas discovered and captured a unique pink grasshopper, so rare that the chance of finding this insect is only 1%.
Madeline Landecker made the ultra-rare discovery last Thursday while walking to the barn at her home in Benton, and learned from a book she read as a young girl that the strangely colored bug was something special. I realized it right away. According to KARK.
“I saw it in a book when I was little,” Madeline told a local broadcaster. “I thought it would be nice to have one.”
The pink grasshopper, which had lost a leg, tried to run away, but she scooped it up within “seconds” and named it Millie, the station said.
Madeline, known to her classmates as the “insect expert” for her research and notes on various creepy crawlers, brought the grasshoppers to school on Friday to show off.
“Everyone thought it was amazing. Teachers were taking pictures,” she told KARK.
Madeline, who wants to become a veterinarian when she grows up, already has nine chickens, two dogs, two cats and a rabbit.
She sells eggs from a small shop at the end of her family’s driveway.
She suspects that the grasshopper’s legs are missing because of the animals she collected.
“I think one of the chickens got infected,” said Madeline, who turned 10 on St. Patrick’s Day.
