Page 44 - World of Animals - Issue #30

Leaping legends

What is a grasshopper?

Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and katydids are all insects belonging to the
group Orthoptera, but how can you tell them apart?

Grasshopper Locust Cricket
Grasshoppers usually have a short pair of Locusts are grasshoppers that are able to fly in Crickets and katydids are part of the suborder

antennae and a total of five eyes. They have two swarms and migrate over long distances. Their Ensifera (whereas grasshoppers and locusts
pairs of wings and three pairs of legs, including wings grow larger and they may change colour are Caelifera). They tend to be darker coloured,
relatively large hind legs. in preparation for swarming. unable to fly, and have long antennae.

Horsehead grasshopper Tobacco

juice
A twig-like species with no wings Grasshoppers spit a brown
HORSEHEAD liquid from their mouths when
GRASSHOPPER Although they bear an uncanny resemblance to stick
Pseudoproscopia scabra insects, horsehead grasshoppers are actually super- they are picked up and this is
Class Insecta sometimes referred to as tobacco
skinny members of the Caelifera suborder. These wingless juice. It’s a harmless substance
insects with their narrow, tubular bodies have evolved made of saliva and enzymes
to look just like sticks and can reach lengths of up to and is used as a defence
20 centimetres (eight inches). The females are larger
Territory Ecuador, Peru mechanism to startle a
Diet Leaves than the males, although both reach maturity within would-be predator.
Lifespan 7-12 months four months of hatching. They spend most of their time
Adult weight Unknown climbing or camouflaged among branches and twigs.

Conservation status
Like all other grasshoppers, they have very long hind legs
and the ability to jump. What’s more, scientists say they
use their compound eyes to detect gaps, allowing them
NOT EVALUATED
to safely and nimbly scuttle through small openings.

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