Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids
Order Orthoptera
- This page contains pictures and information about Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
Grasshoppers, crickets and katydids are in Order Orthoptera. Their size ranges from 5mm to 100mm.
Most of them have their hind
legs highly developed, much stronger and larger than the other four legs.
They are very good in jumping. The adults insects have four wings, the front
wings, knows as tegmina, is tough and narrow when compare with the hind wings.
At rest, the hind wings folded like a fans, covered and protected by the
tegmina. The flight is mainly achieved by the broadly opened membranous hind
wings and the tegmina will give only little help.
They are incomplete metamorphosis and their young, the nymphs, look much
the same as their adults excepts smaller and wingless. Later instars have
wing buds but still cannot fly.
Many species in this order can sing by stridulation. Males use sound to attract females. For most species sound is produced by rubbing modified portions of the forewings together.
Classification :
- In the Orthoptera Order, the are two suborder: the Suborder Ensifera and Suborder Caelifera, each of which contains a numbers of families. Followings are the list of families that we found up to this moment.
- Suborder Ensifera
- Members in this Suborder have very long antennae, some may be several times of their body length. The auditory organs located on the fore legs. Their stridulation are produced by the mechanisms on the base of their forewings. The females usually have long ovipositors extended from the end of their abdomen.
Family GRYLLACRIDIDAE -
Raspy Crickets
Members in this family, including nymphs and females, will produce a raspy sound when disturbed. They are active at night. They usually spend the daytime in burrows or in leaves shelters.
Family TETTIGONIIDAE - Katydids- In this family, nymphs are usually resemble ants or bugs. Females have sword-like ovipositor and lay eggs by inserted them into leaf. Males produce love songs by file on the left wing and scraper on the right. Most of them are tree foliage feeders. A few of them are predaceous species.
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Family GRYLLIDAE - True Crickets
The True Crickets can be distinguished from others by presence of long ovipositor and long cerci in females. They are nocturnally active. They live on the ground, can be found in burrows, crack in soil or amongst leaf litter. Males produce complex love songs by rubbing wings together. 
Family GRYLLOTALPIDAE -
Mole Crickets
Mole Crickets have characteristic digging forelegs. Males produce songs and build burrows to amplify their love song. When dug up, they do not leap away like other burrow-inhabiting insects but dig their way back underground with powerful strokes of the forelegs. The dirt is simply forced aside.- Suborder Caelifera
This suborder includes the short-horned grasshoppers, grasshoppers and locust. Members in this suborder have their antennae not very long. Most species feed on grass and low bushes. The auditory organs are on the first segment of their abdomen. They produce their love song, the stridulation, by lateral part of their forewings. Females normally larger than males and with short ovipositors. 
Family EUMASTACIDAE - Morabine
Grasshoppers
Most members in this family are wingless. They are usually very elongated and narrow. They are well camouflaged and hide in the plants.
Family PYRGOMORPHIDAE - Pyrgomorphs- This family is very close related with the Family ACRIDIDAE and sometimes put under ACRIDIDAE as the subfamily. They are medium in size. Usually they hide in grasses, not quite jump or fly. Protection simply relies on their camouflage colour.
Family ACRIDIDAE - Typical Grasshoppers- Members in this family usually have their wings well developed and sometimes brightly coloured. Most of them have an annual life cycle. Some species, under some conditions, will migrate in a dense swarms form, known as locusts, bring large damage to the crop.
Questions for Discussion
Grasshopper is one of the common insect that we can easily find in bush or in garden. What make the grasshoppers so popular?
- Grasshoppers sometimes regarded as pest in our garden. Their number is large. Different species of grasshopper are easily found.
- Grasshoppers are common because they eat most kinds of plants. Not many insect species feed on all kinds of plants. Different plants have evolved different kinds of resistance to avoid being eaten by insects, such as taste, toxic, plants structure etc. So most of the plants eating insects feed on special kind of plants only. However, grasshoppers eat most kinds of plants. They have strong chewing mouthparts. They feed on almost all kind of plants in our garden and in natural habitat. They following our corps and plants, they come to our garden and our farm. This is sure one of the major factors for their success.
- Beside, grasshoppers have some other fitness factors. They fly, although not a very good flier. They have good eye sight, although not as good as dragonfly, flies, bee or butterfly, still goo enough to fly and to avoid predators. They do camouflage, although not as good as stick insect, but they have not given up the wings function, legs walking functions and good eyes sight.
- Grasshopper's hind legs are their icon and this is also the major factor of their
survival fitness. Their skill of jumping to escape form predators is very effective.
The spiny and
strange kick by their legs make some predators keep away from them.
