The name Grasshopper describes a number of insects that fall under the scientific “suborder” Caelifera, which is in the order Orthoptera. Within this suborder there are over 11,000 species of grasshopper. That’s a lot of types of grasshoppers!

Grasshoppers eat plants, primarily leaves, grasses, and cereal crops. A lot of grasshoppers can eat a lot of food and can cause serious problems for farmers by eating all of their crops. Males will make a singing sound by rubbing a hind leg against one of their hard forewings. The rough leg causes the wing to vibrate and make a sound, almost like a bow playing a violin.

Grasshoppers have shorter antennae than crickets. They make sounds by rubbing their forelegs against their wings, while crickets rub their wings together. Locusts are a type of grasshopper. They typically live alone, but are famous for forming giant swarms that can swoop down and destroy massive areas of crops.

A lot of people around the world eat grasshoppers. They are a good source of protein. They lay eggs that hatch into nymphs. As the nymphs grow into full size adults they will molt many times. The villains in the movie A Bug’s Life by Pixar are grasshoppers. They have many predators including birds, spiders, beetles, and lizards. Grasshoppers can leap 20 times as far as their body length.