A spiritedly jumping South European grasshopper surprised some repair men in Joensuu in Eastern Finland on Wednesday.
The approximately 5-cm-long insect, the colour of cafe latte, was found in connection with the renovation of some business premises, when a box of wall tiles sent from Italy was being opened.
The peculiar discovery was first reported by Karjalainen, a daily newspaper in Eastern Finland, on its website.
On Wednesday, the grasshopper was forwarded for an analysis to Intendant Markku Huttunen of the faculty of biosciences at the University of Joensuu.
Huttunen confirmed that the insect is a very large foreign grasshopper. He also said that grasshoppers really do have the ability to survive travel in a cramped box from one country to another, which would of course make them ideal passengers on cut-price airlines.
Intendant Huttunen plans to put the stowaway grasshopper on display in a terrarium in the lobby of the University of Joensuu.
