Page 42 - World of Animals - Issue #30

L EA I G
P
N

LEGENDS

Some of the most diverse groups of insect
on the planet, grasshoppers can catapult

themselves into the air, reaching heights 20
times the length of their own body

Words David Crookes

From the moment any one of the 11,000 species But they do seem to make the most of life.
of grasshopper hatch from their egg, they begin Grasshoppers like to feast, eating up to 16 times
a remarkable life on Earth. Shedding their outer their own body weight in grasses, cereal crops
layer five times on their way to adulthood, they and leaves (although this can make them the
develop amazing talents, including the ability to scourge of farmers). The males also like to play
leap great distances – the equivalent, in fact, to a tunes to attract females, by rubbing a row of
human being able to clear the entire length of a pegs on their lower back legs against their
basketball court in a single bound. forewings or by rubbing their wings together.
Grasshoppers are designed to avoid being And even though they are found in every
eaten. Their jumping allows them to escape from corner of the globe except for the particularly
predators; their colouring helps them camouflage cold regions close to the Earth’s poles, new
within differing environments and the toxicity of discoveries are still being made. Whether it’s
some species makes them very unpleasant to be learning how they make their magnificent
around, never mind to eat. Their two compound leaps, or spotting parasitic worms that force
eyes can spot danger metres away and their them to commit suicide underwater, these
three simple eyes distinguish dark and light. are insects that continue to astound.

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