Grasshopper:

A grasshopper is an invertebrate animal. It belongs to the phylum Arthropoda and class Insecta. The
characteristics of grasshopper are like other insects. Grasshopper lives all over the world in grassland
and leafy vegetation. They feed on grass and leaf. Some kinds of grasshoppers are known as locusts.
 
Classification of Grasshopper:
 
Kingdom: Animalia
 
Phylum: Arthropoda
 
Class: Insecta
 
Order: Orthoptera
 
Family: Locustidae
 
Genus: Schistocera
 
Species: S. gregaria
 

External Features:
 
1.   Grasshopper's body is narrow, elongated, tubular, and somewhat compressed laterally. It is about 8
cm in length.
 
2.   Its body is yellowish gray which enables them to resemble the environment in which they live.
3.  Entire body is covered by a hard cuticle or integument; the cuticle is divided into a definite number of
segments.
 
4.  The body of the Grasshopper is divided into the head, thorax, and abdomen.

A. Head: The head is big and somewhat triangular. There is a pair of large compound eyes and a pair of
antennae on the head. At the anterior end of the head, there is a mouth opening. Surrounding the
mouth opening there are some mouth appendages.
 
B. Thorax: There are three pairs of segmented legs on the ventral side and two pairs of elongated wings
on the dorsal side. The fore wings are a bit thicker and the hind wings are broad and membranous.
 
C. Abdomen: The abdomen of a grasshopper is elongated and gradually narrower towards the posterior
end. The posterior end of the abdomen bears a pair of outgrowths known as anal circa. On the two sides
of the body, eight pairs of respiratory openings called spiracles are present.
Digestive System of Grasshopper: As a grasshopper is an invertebrate animal it is dissected from the
dorsal side. The digestive system consists of:
1. Alimentary Canal
2. Salivary glands.
 

1. Alimentary Canal: The Alimentary Canal or gut is divided into three main regions, namely.
a. Fore Gut: There are four parts of the foregut, e.g.
 
i. Mouth Opening: At the anterior end of the foregut there is a mouth opening through which food
enters. Around the mouth opening, there are mouth appendages.
 
ii.  Pharynx: It is smaller in size and located just behind the mouth opening.
 
iii. Oesophagus: First part of the esophagus is narrow and the hind portion is expanded to form a sac-like
structure known as a crop. Here the food is partially digested and stored.
 
iv. Gizzard: Posterior to the crop, is gizzard. It is thick-walled, muscular, and more or less cone-shaped.
Gizzard grinds and crushes the food.
 
b. Mid Gut or Mesenteron: The next part behind the gizzard is the midgut or stomach. It is a large wide
sac where food is digested. At the junction of the gizzard and stomach, a number of gastric caeca are
present. These caeca open into the midgut and secrete enzymes.
c. Hind Gut: The hind portion of the gut is known as the hindgut. It has two regions, e.g.
 
i. Ileum or Small Intestine: It is a tubular portion. Absorption of digested food occurs here.
 
ii. Large Intestine: Next to the ileum, is the large intestine consists of a tubular colon and sac-like rectum.
At the end of the rectum lies the anal opening. In the rectum undigested food is stored as feces which
comes out through the anus.
 
2. Salivary Glands: Closely associated with the esophagus and crop, there are a pair of small branched
salivary glands that secrete saliva and open to the buccal cavity.
 

Characteristics of Phylum Chordata

1. (Noton; back and chorda; cord).

2. Kingdom: Animalia

3. Presence of a notochord

4. They are backboned animals (vertebrates),

5. Most of the living chordates are familiar vertebrate animals.

6. Presence of dorsal hollow nerve cord

7. Blood vascular system: Present, closed type

8. Ventral heart, hepatic portal system, and RBC are present.

9. Germ layer: Triploblastic.

10. Symmetry: bilateral symmetry body.

11. Coelom: Present. Well developed

12. Presence of gill (pharyngeal) slits

13. Presence of post-anal tail

Chordates must have these four characteristics at some stage in their life cycle.

1. Notochord

 The notochord is a rigid structure that lies just in front of the nerve chord.

 Support and protects the nerve chord.

  In vertebrates, the notochord is present in embryonic development and later develops

into the vertebral column.

2. Dorsal Nerve Cord

 In the vertebrates, the vertebrae (developed notochord) surround and protect the nerve

cord creating the spine.

 Hollow structure containing the nerve chord.

3. Pharyngeal (throat) Slits

Only visible during embroyonic stages

 Figure 2: Amphixous with labeled Chordate characteristics

Phylum Chordata is divided into four sub-phylum:

1. Hemichordata,
2. Urochordata,
3. Cephalochordata
4. vertebrata or Craniata

Evolution of Chordates
The fossil record of chordates begins in the early Cambrian period, roughly 530 million years ago. The
oldest known chordate fossil was found in China and described in 1995. It is a member of
the species Yunnanozoon lividium, within the subphylum Cephalochordata. The earliest fossil
evidence for members of the vertebrate subphylum also dates back roughly 530 million years. This is
when fossils of the jawless fish first appeared. A timeline showing the order of appearance of each of
the major chordate groups in the fossil record is shown in Figure below. The earliest tetrapods (having
four legs) are amphibians, with fossils dating back to the Devonian period, roughly 363 million years
ago. Shortly thereafter, reptile-like tetrapods arose. It was some time after the appearance of  reptiles,
approximately 80 million years, that mammals entered the scene. The first mammalian fossils date back
to the Triassic period, about 208 million years ago. Finally, bird fossils appear 146 million years ago in the
Jurassic period.

Chordate evolution, like that of arthropods, includes major habitat transitions. The earliest
chordates were all marine animals like tunicates and lancelets. As chordates continued to
evolve, they spread to freshwater habitats and ultimately to land. The amphibians represent an
intermediate phase in the water to land transition of chordates. The evolution of birds further
increased the distribution of chordates by expanding their populations into aerial habitats.
The evolution of chordates led to a variety of specialized structural features and behavioral
modifications that were necessitated by the environmental pressures imposed on different groups
within the phylum. Vertebrates in particular show an enormous range of features that represent
different evolutionary modifications of the same original structure. One example of this is the
bird beak

Echinodermata:
 
Starfish (Asterias rubens):
 
1.  The body is star-shaped with five arms Integument is spiny.
 
2.  They have no head.
 
3.  Each of the five arms has tube feet.
 
Osteichthyes:
 
Rui Fish (Labeo rohita):
1.           Body covered with large scales.
 
2.  There are four gills, covered by the operculum.
 
3.  The lips are fleshy.
 
4.  The lateral line is conspicuous.
 
5.  One pair each of pectoral and pelvic fins and unpaired dorsal, ventral, and caudal fins are Present
 
6.  Body is divided into a head, trunk, and tail.

Amphibia:
 
Frog (Rana tigrina):
 
1.  Body is covered by smooth integument and black-yellowish strips are present.
 
2.  Head is triangular.
 
3.  There are teeth on the jaw.
 
4.  There are four fingers in the forelimb and five fingers in the hind limb.
 

Reptilia:
 
Wall Lizard (Hemidactylus brookii):
1.  Body is divided into a head, trunk, and tail.
 
2.  Head is triangular.
 
3.  On the two sides of the head there are a pair of eyes a pair of narial aperture and a pair of auditory
aperture.
 
4.  Two pairs of legs are present in the trunk region. Each leg has five fins:
 
5.  Fingers are with pads.

Aves:
 
Crow (Corvus splendens):
1. Body covered with black feathers.
2. It can fly.
3. Hard beak and two legs with claws are present.
4. In the wings there are long feathers.
 

Mammalia:
Rat (Rattus rattus):
1. Size of the mammal is small.
 
2. The tail is longer in proportion to the body; the two ears are small and remain erect
 
3. The body is covered by hair.
 
4. There are teeth in the jaws.
 
5. Whiskers present in the nasal region.

Protozoa :
 
Amoeba (Amoeba proteus) :
 
1. One-celled animal. microscopic
 
2. It always changes its shape by projecting pseudopodia.
 
3.  There is a nucleus in its body.
 

Porifera:
 
Sponge (Spongilla fragillis):
 
1.   Its body wall is provided with numerous pores known as Ostia.
 
2.  The adult animal remains attached permanently to some object.
 
3.  There are various types of canal systems in the body.
 
Cnidaria:
 
Hydra (Hydra viridis):
 
1.    It has a long body. At the anterior end of, the body, there is a hypostome. Hypostome bears
an opening and tentacles at its base. Opposite to hypostome is a basal disc.
 
2.  There is only one cavity in the body known as the coelenteron.
 
3.   All the cells of the body are arranged in two layers, namely: ectoderm and endoderm.
Mesoglea Presents in between the layers.
 
4.        Specialized nematocysts originate in the ectoderm. It helps to catch the prey.
  

Platyhelminthes :
 
Liver Fluke (Fasciola hepatica):
 
1.  Body soft, flat, and leaf-like.
 
2.   Sucker is present on the ventral side and at the anterior end of the body.
 
3. Mouth is present within the anterior sucker.

 
Nematoda:
 
Round Worm (Ascaris lumbricoides):
 
1. Body is cylindrical with two ends pointed.
 
2. There are four lines along the length of the body.
 
3.  Mouth opening is present at the anterior end of the body.
 
4.   Mouth opening is lined with three lips.

Annelida:
 
Earthworm Metaphire (pheretima Posthuma):
 
1.   Body is cylindrical and segmented.
2.   In the middle of each segment fine setae are present.
3.   On the 14th to 16th segments a band-like fleshy clitellum is present.
 
Arthropoda:
 
Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii):
 
1.  Body is divided into Cephalothorax and abdomen, no tail but telson is present.
 
2. Head and thorax together form the Cephalothorax. The body is covered by a hard carapace.
 
3. Carapace is extended forward as a saw-like rostrum.
 
4. Stocked compound eyes. on each side of the head are present.
  

Mollusca:
 
Snail (Pila globosa):
 
1.  The soft body is covered by a shell.
 
2.  At the opening of the shell there is a 'C 'shaped lid.
 
3.  The shell is spirally coiled with a pointed tip.