Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers are leaping insects belonging to the order Orthoptera, which also includes locusts. These fascinating creatures are characterized by their long, slender hind legs that enable impressive jumps, often many times their body length. Grasshoppers possess two pairs of wings, with the hindwings being delicate and used for flight, while their tough forewings provide protection. They are primarily herbivores, feeding on leaves, roots, and stems of various plants, and are found in diverse habitats across the globe, except for certain extreme regions.
Grasshoppers undergo a life cycle that includes a nymph stage, where they hatch from eggs as wingless larvae and mature within about ninety days. Some species can exhibit significant behavioral changes, becoming gregarious and forming large swarms, particularly during dry periods following abundant vegetation. This swarming behavior can lead to extensive agricultural damage, as locusts are known for consuming vast amounts of plant matter. Interestingly, while they have a reputation for being pests, grasshoppers and locusts have been consumed by humans in various cultures, highlighting their role in both ecosystems and human diets.
Grasshoppers
Grasshopper Facts
Classification:
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Subkingdom: Bilateria
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Order: Orthoptera (grasshoppers and related species)
- Families: Include Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers, locusts), Tettigoniidae (long-horned grasshoppers, katydids)
- Geographical location: Most world locations, except Arctic and Antarctic regions, northern Canada, Greenland, northern Asia, and northwest Africa
- Habitat: Grass and shrubbery
- Gestational period: Natural gestation time is uncertain, as eggs laid in the fall do not hatch until spring
- Life span: Several months to a year
- Special anatomy: Six legs, three on each side of the thorax; two pairs of wings, two hard forewings that serve as protection for two membranous hindwings used in flying; ears on or near legs; compound eyes
Grasshoppers, leaping insects of the order Orthoptera, include all locusts. However, not all grasshoppers are locusts. The main difference between the locusts and other grasshoppers is the length of their horns (antennae). Locusts (Acrididae) have shorter antennae than other grasshoppers (Tettigoniidae). The amazing leaps of grasshoppers are due to long, slender hind legs with large thighs. These leaps are each many times the grasshopper’s body length.
Most grasshoppers also have large, straight, delicate hindwings, which enable flight. When a grasshopper is at rest, these wings are folded up and protected by tough front wings that cover them entirely. Grasshoppers are found in most areas of the world except for northern Canada, Greenland, northern Asia, northwest Africa, Western Australia, and the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Long-horned grasshoppers are herbivores and found wherever vegetation grows. Their threadlike antennae are longer than their bodies. They are related to katydids. When endangered, they spit out brown liquid called “tobacco juice” and take huge, vigorous leaps to escape. The green color of these grasshoppers conceals them in grass, where they eat pieces of grass leaves and stems.
Short-horned grasshoppers, locusts, live only in grasses and leaves. They have different life phases during which they may be solitary grasshoppers or gregarious locusts. Gregarious-phase locusts are well known for traveling in huge swarms that lay bare whole farms, whole countries, or even whole global regions. The huge populations of swarms and the destruction they have caused are mentioned in the Bible. Schistocerca gregaria gregaria, desert locusts, may have been the species described in the biblical account of the plagues of Egypt.
Physical Characteristics
Grasshoppers are one to eight inches long when fully grown. Some species undergo seasonal color changes, being green at some times and red, olive, or brown at others. Like other insects, the grasshopper body is divided into three parts: head, thorax (mid-section), and abdomen (hind-section). A grasshopper’s antennae, which have tactile functions, are found on its head.
Each grasshopper has a pair of compound eyes with many lenses, located on the front of its head. Grasshoppers also have three pairs of legs, extending from the thorax. The last pair is much larger and longer than the others and enables jumping. Grasshoppers eat leaves, roots, and stems of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, chewing with strong mandibles (jaws), moving these jaws from side to side to break apart their food.
Most grasshoppers have two pairs of wings along the back of the abdomen. Two hard forewings serve as protection and two membranous hindwings are used to fly. When a grasshopper is not flying, its hindwings fold up and are covered and protected by its forewings. All long-horned grasshoppers “sing” by rubbing the bases of their forewings together. Some male locusts make calls to females by rubbing their hind legs against their wings, and others do so by rubbing their hind legs or forewings against other parts of their bodies.
The hearing organs of long-horned grasshoppers are small growths just beneath the knee joints of their front legs. In short-horned grasshoppers, these ears are clear, circular areas on the abdomen at points just behind the junction of hind legs and body. In females, growths shaped like sickles are located at the rear of the abdomen. These ovipositors drill holes in grass, twigs, or the ground, where eggs are deposited. Ovipositors of short-horned grasshoppers are specially designed to deposit pouches of eggs in the ground.
Life Cycles
In the spring, grasshoppers hatch from eggs as pale, wingless nymphs (larvae). Then, within ninety days, they develop into full-grown locusts, molting four to five times in the process. Mature insects mate, and about a week later, females lay the eggs for the next generation. They die a few weeks after this.
Locusts, such as the Rocky Mountain locust (Melanoplus spretus), lay their eggs in holes in the ground in the fall. The eggs hatch in the spring, and young reach maturity in July or August. Those of long-horned grasshoppers, such as common meadow grasshoppers (Orchelimum vulgare), are laid in low bushes or crevices in tree bark.
During a dry period following a rainier season with plentiful vegetation, individual grasshoppers tend to gather and release pheromones. These gregarious-phase insects then live together in bands, change in coloration to yellow or pink, and alter their mating and other behavioral patterns. The resulting swarm can lay waste to vegetation over large swaths of land, as each locust in the swarm can eat up to its weight in plant matter each day.
Not only do locusts eat human crops, but in turn, humans have eaten them for centuries. For example, Talmudic law exempts locusts and other grasshoppers from the taboo on eating flying or creeping creatures “going on all fours.” Also, Shakespeare’s play Othello mentions food “luscious as locusts.” Candied locusts are eaten throughout China and the Philippines. In North Africa, locusts dried and ground into powder are mixed into flour used to bake bread.
Human consumption is not the only danger to grasshoppers and locusts. Other natural threats include birds, egg parasites, certain fly species, tracheal and body mites, round worms, and fungi. Organophosphate pesticides have been used to kill locust swarms in affected areas, containing infestations.
Principal Terms
mandibles: insect jaws
molting: shedding an insect shell, to enable continued growth
nymph: a grasshopper larva
Bibliography
Bailey, Jill, and Carolyn Scrace. Grasshoppers. New York: Bookwright, 1990.
Brown, Valerie K. Grasshoppers. New York: Cambridge UP, 1983.
Chapman, R. F. The Insects: Structure and Function. 4th ed. New York: Cambridge UP, 1998.
Chapman, R. F., and A. Joern, eds. Biology of Grasshoppers. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1990.
"Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Locusts." Locust Watch. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, 2009. www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/faq
Nuwer, Rachel. "When Weather Changes, Grasshopper Turns Locust." The New York Times, 8 Apr. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/science/when-weather-changes-grasshopper-turns-locust.html?‗r=0.