hoopers

[kahroba]

Could someone please tell me why there's no definition of "hooper" (as an insect) even in "Merriam Webster". Here's my context from "The Body of an American" by Dos Passos:

down in the clearing in the Oregon forest (please read Argonne Forest) where the punkins were punkiccolor pouring into the blood through the eyes and the fallcolored trees and the bronze hoopers were hopping through the dry grass, where tiny striped snails hung on the underside of the blades and the flies hummed, wasps droned, bumblebees buzzed, and the woods smelt of wine and mushrooms and apples, honey smell of fall pouring into the blood,

 

[dg_spain]

Hello, Karoba--if you look in the dictionary, I do not believe you will find "punkins" or "punkicolor", either. It looks as if the author has used words that are transliterations of spoken terms. I have never heard "hoopers" as a term for this insect, which I understand, however, to be "grasshoppers".
I hope this helps!