Grasshopper Information

Phylum, Arthropoda; Class, Insecta; Order, Orthoptera

Identifying Features
Appearance (Morphology)
• Brown, with some darker markings
• Black herringbone pattern on hind
femur
• Big hind legs for jumping
• 2 pairs of wings: forewings narrow
and relatively hard; hind wings large, membranous
• Antennae not very long, 20-24 segments
• Conspicuous eyes
• Cerci (pair of appendages at end of abdomen) unjointed
Adult Males and Females
Males have a single unpaired plate at the end of abdomen. Female has
two pairs of valves (triangle shapes) at end of abdomen used to dig in
sand when egg laying.
Immatures (different stages)
In very young stage, the grasshopper has no wings. In later stages,
wings are visible as small pads at end of thorax.
Natural History
Food
Many species of grasshoppers are general herbivores feeding on a
variety of plants. Some species only like grasses.
Habitat
Widespread in U.S.
Predators
Birds, lizards,mantids, spiders, and rodents eat grasshoppers.
Interesting Behaviors
Feeding: Although they eat many things, they still have preferences.
Mating behavior: See how male courts female. Egg-laying: Female digs
hole with abdomen. Some grasshoppers spit a brown bitter liquid as a
defensive behavior in response to being handled. Use a piece of white
paper and gently wipe the grasshopper's mouth if the spit is not evident.
Before molting, grasshoppers do not eat and become less active. During
the molt, they swallow air to build up pressure to split the old cuticle.
Impact on the Ecosystem
Positive
As herbivores, grasshoppers link plants to the rest of the ecosystem.
Frass (droppings) contribute to nutrient turnover by returning nutrients
as fertilizer for the plants. They provide food for birds and other
arthropods.
Negative
Sometimes some species of grasshopper occur in very large numbers
and cause serious crop damage and loss of plants in pastures.
Collecting Live Insects
Where to find
Grasshoppers are around in the spring and summer, but are most
noticeable in the autumn. Areas with many grasses, small "vacant" lots
and gardens are good places to start looking. Look at the area as you
walk through. If you can hear the plants moving as you walk there are
most likely grasshoppers around. Look during the middle of the day for
best results. At night, use a flashlight to find grasshoppers roosting on
the leaves. In the summer and autumn, some grasshoppers fly into porch
lights.
How to collect
Encourage students to bring in grasshoppers. Catching grasshoppers
may require patience and determination. Once grasshoppers have wings,
many species can fly faster than you can run. Those without wings are
easier to chase. Grasshoppers are perceptive and can sense you when
you are several feet away. If they are on a plant and you try to grab
them, they will move around the stem and often drop off the plant. You
can swing an insect net or place the net over the plant while holding up
the bottom of the net. With your hand gently coax grasshoppers into the
net. They will walk or jump up into the net. Once in the net, gently pick
up the grasshopper and place it in a container. It is also possible to
collect grasshoppers by very slowly moving a glass or plastic vial
towards the grasshopper's head and they will jump into it.
Grasshoppers have antennae that are almost always shorter than the body (sometimes
filamentous), and short ovipositors. Those species that make easily heard noises usually do so
by rubbing the hind femurs against the forewings or abdomen (stridulation), or by snapping
the wings in flight. Tympana, if present, are on the sides of the first abdominal segment. The
hind femora are typically long and strong, fitted for leaping. Generally they are winged, but
hind wings are membranous while front wings (tegmina) are coriaceous and not fit for flight.
Females are normally larger than males, with short ovipositors. Males have a single unpaired
plate at the end of the abdomen. Females have two pairs of valves ( triangles) at the end of
the abdomen used to dig in sand when egg laying.
They are easily confused with the other sub-order of Orthoptera, Ensifera, but are different in
many aspects, such as the number of segments in their antennae and structure of the
ovipositor, as well as the location of the tympana and modes of sound production. Ensiferans
have antennae with at least 20-24 segments, and caeliferans have fewer. In evolutionary
terms, the split between the Caelifera and the Ensifera is no more recent than the Permo-
Triassic boundary (Zeuner 1939).

[edit] Diversity and range

Recent estimates (Kevan 1982; Günther, 1980, 1992; Otte 1994-1995; subsequent literature)
indicate some 2,400 valid Caeliferan genera and about 11,000 valid species described to date.
Many undescribed species exist, especially in tropical wet forests. The Caelifera are
predominantly tropical.

[edit] Biology
[edit] Digestion and excretion
The digestive system of insects includes a foregut (stomodaeum, the mouth region), a hindgut
(proctodaeum, the anal region), and a midgut (mesenteron). The mouth leads to the muscular
pharynx, and through the esophagus to the crop. This leads to the malpighian tubules. These
are the chief excretion organs. The hindgut includes intestine parts (including the ileum and
rectum), and exits through the anus. Most food is handled in the midgut, but some food
residue as well as waste products from the malpighian tubules are managed in the hindgut.
These waste products consist mainly of uric acid, urea and amino acids, and are normally
converted into dry pellets before being disposed of.
The salivary glands and midgut secrete digestive enzymes. The midgut secretes protease,
lipase, amylase, and invertase, among other enzymes. The particular ones secreted vary with
the different diets of grasshoppers.
[edit] Nervous system
The grasshopper's nervous system is controlled by ganglia, loose groups of nerve cells which
are found in most species more advanced than cnidarians. In grasshoppers, there are ganglia
in each segment as well as a larger set in the head, which are considered the brain. There is
also a neuropile in the centre, through which all ganglia channel signals. The sense organs
(sensory neurons) are found near the exterior of the body and consist of tiny hairs (sensilla),
which consist of one sense cell and one nerve fibre, which are each specially calibrated to
respond to a certain stimulus. While the sensilla are found all over the body, they are most
dense on the antennae, palps (part of the mouth), and cerci (near the posterior). Grasshoppers
also have tympanal organs for sound reception. Both these and the sensilla are linked to the
brain via the neuropile.
Romalea guttata grasshoppers mating

Common Macrotona (Macrotona australis)

laying eggs

[edit] Reproduction
The grasshopper's reproductive system consists of the gonads, the ducts which carry sexual
products to the exterior, and accessory glands. In males, the testes consist of a number of
follicles which hold the spermatocytes as they mature and form packets of elongated
spermatozoa.
During reproduction, the male grasshopper introduces sperm into the ovipositor through its
aedeagus (reproductive organ), and inserts its spermatophore, a package containing the
sperm, into the female's ovipositor. The sperm enters the eggs through fine canals called
micropyles. The female then lays the fertilized egg pod, using her ovipositor and abdomen to
insert the eggs about one to two inches underground, although they can also be laid in plant
roots or even manure. The egg pod contains several dozens of tightly-packed eggs that look
like thin rice grains. The eggs stay there through the winter, and hatch when the weather has
warmed sufficiently. In temperate zones, many grasshoppers spend most of their life as eggs
through the cooler months (up to 9 months) and the active states (young and adult
grasshoppers) live only up to three months. The first nymph to hatch tunnels up through the
ground, and the rest follow. Grasshoppers develop through stages and progressively get larger
in body and wing size. This development is referred to as hemimetabolous or incomplete
metamorphosis since the young are rather similar to the adult.
[edit] Circulation and respiration
Grasshoppers have open circulatory systems, with most of the body fluid (haemolymph)
filling body cavities and appendages. The one closed organ, the dorsal vessel, extends from
the head through the thorax to the hind end. It is a continuous tube with two regions: the
heart, which is restricted to the abdomen; and the aorta, which extends from the heart to the
head through the thorax. Haemolymph is pumped forward from the hind end and the sides of
the body through a series of valved chambers, each of which contains a pair of lateral
openings (ostia). The haemolymph continues to the aorta and is discharged through the front
of the head. Accessory pumps carry haemolymph through the wing veins and along the legs
and antennae before it flows back to the abdomen. This haemolymph circulates nutrients
through the body and carries metabolic wastes to the malphighian tubes to be excreted.
Because it does not carry oxygen, grasshopper "blood" is green.
Respiration is performed using tracheae, air-filled tubes, which open at the surfaces of the
thorax and abdomen through pairs of spiracles. The spiracle valves only open to allow
oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange. The tracheoles, found at the end of the tracheal tubes,
are insinuated between cells and carry oxygen throughout the body. (For more information
on respiration, see Insect.)

Six stages of development, from newly-hatched nymph to fully-winged adult.

(Melanoplus sanguinipes)

Grasshopper from underneath

[edit] Other information
[edit] As food
In many places around the world, grasshoppers are eaten as a good source of protein. In
Mexico for example chapulines are used as a snack or filling. It is served on skewers in
Chinese food markets, like the Donghuamen Night Market [1]
Raw grasshoppers should be eaten with caution, as they can contain tapeworms.[2]
In Africa, grasshoppers are an important food source, adding proteins, fat, minerals, and
vitamins to the daily diet, especially in times of food crisis. Grasshoppers are usually
collected at dusk, using lamps or electric lighting, in sweep nets. They are placed in water for
24 hours, after which they can be boiled or eaten raw, sun-dried, fried, flavored with onions,
or used in soup.
[edit] Locusts
See also locust and desert locust.
Locusts are several species of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae that
sometimes form very large groups (swarms); these can be highly destructive and migrate in a
more or less coordinated way. Thus, these grasshoppers have solitary and gregarious (swarm)
phases. Locust swarms can cause massive damage to crops. Important locust species include
Schistocerca gregaria and Locusta migratoria in Africa and the Middle East, and
Schistocerca piceifrons in tropical Mexico and Central America (Mesoamerica). Other
grasshoppers important as pests (which, unlike true locusts, do not change colour when they
form swarms) include Melanoplus species (like M. bivittatus, M. femurrubrum and M.
differentialis) and Camnula pellucida in North America; the lubber grasshopper Brachystola
magna, and Sphenarium purpurascens in Northern and Central Mexico; species of
Rhammatocerus in South America; and the Senegalese grasshopper Oedaleus senegalensis
and the variegated grasshopper Zonocerus variegatus in Africa.
[edit] In popular culture
• Aesop (620–560 BC), a slave and story-teller who lived in Ancient Greece,
told a tale called The Ant and the Grasshopper. In this tale, the ant worked
hard preparing his shelter and stores of food all summer, while the
grasshopper played. When winter came, the ant was prepared, but the
grasshopper has no shelter or food. He begs to enter the ant's house, but
the ant refuses and the grasshopper starves.
• The 1957 film Beginning of the End featured mutated giant grasshoppers
attacking Chicago.
• "Grasshopper" is a term currently used in jest referencing a person who
has much to learn. Its use originated from the television show Kung Fu
(1972-1975). Caine, the young student, portrayed by Radames Pera, is
receiving instruction from his Master Po (portrayed by Keye Luke) who
nicknames his student "Grasshopper" as a term of endearment.
• In the 1998 movie A Bug's Life, the heroes are the members of an ant
colony, and the lead villain and his henchmen are grasshoppers. In an
apparent homage to the Aesop fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper, the
lead villain is eaten by a bird.
• The Japanese superhero franchise "Kamen Rider" originally had a
grasshopper motif, with a grasshopper based helmet and costume. This
was later toned down in later Kamen Rider episodes, though some
features of the original hero remain ("bug eyes").