Grasshoppers, locusts, katydids, crickets

Code QQ999999

Key terminates here

A worldwide order of insects with more than 20,000 species in some 13 families, in two suborders Caelifera (grasshoppers and locusts) and Ensifera (katydids and crickets). Hemimetabolous; elongate cylindrical, medium-sized to large, with enlarged hind legs for jumping.

Hypognathous; mandibulate; compound eyes well developed, ocelli present or absent; antennae multisegmented; prothorax large, pronotum shield-like curving over pleura, mesothorax small, metathorax large; fore wings forming narrow, leathery tegmina, hindwings broad, with numerous longitudinal and cross-veins, folded beneath tegmina by pleating, with aptery and brachyptery frequent; legs often elongate and slender, hind legs large, usually saltatorial, tarsi with 1-4 segments; abdomen with 8-9 annular visible segments, with 2 or 3 terminal segments reduced; female with well-developed appendicular ovipositor; cerci 1-segmented.

Nymphs resemble small adults except in lack of development of wings and genitalia, but apterous adults may be difficult to distinguish from nymphs.

Caelifera are predominantly day-active, fast-moving, visually acute, terrestrial herbivores, (including some destructive insects such as migratory locusts). Several taxa can occur on aquatic macrophytes, but within family Acrididae (QQ119999) many members of the subfamily Oxyinae are associated with water, including some grasshopper pests of rice fields overseas. Also in Caelifera, but of generally cricket-like appearance, are the Tridactylidae (QQ139999) . These small crickets frequent the margins of water bodies and often swim on or beneath the surface of the water.