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It's a jungle out there!

The girls were doing some weeding around the trees in the back yard, when they spotted this. It's three inches long, and the poor thing is missing one of it's back legs.  The girls kept finding creatures and running for the camera.  I will miss our backyard jungle. 

I identified the grasshopper with the help of this website.

Lubber grasshoppers (Romalea microptera) are large, heavily sclerotized insects with relatively unspecialized bodies.  Like all members of the order Orthoptera, they are herbivores.  Their mouthparts are adapted for biting and chewing, and they have large powerful hind legs used for jumping.  As adults, lubber grasshoppers have short wings that are incapable of flight.  The wings are used to signal receptivity during courtship.