Join Nature Notes-What are you or have you seen and enjoyed in nature? It can be from your own backyard, the local park, out on a hike or anywhere. What plants and animals catch your interest? Do you garden? Have you read a good book on nature?

My grandson is now interested in grasshoppers so…..Now I get to learn about grasshoppers.. I realize that I approach learning and presenting material as a teacher and as a special education teacher at that. I am sorry if my posts look like school lessons, but I learn better when I can see and read the material and when it is presented in an orderly fashion. But there are no tests here and nobody is required to read it… <smile>

Grasshoppers are herbivorous insects of the suborder Caelifera in the order Orthoptera. To distinguish them from bush crickets or katydids, they are sometimes referred to as short-horned grasshoppers. Species that change colour and behaviour at high population densities are called locusts.

GRASSHOPPER CHARACTERISTICS

Grasshoppers are medium to large insects. Adult length is 1 to 7 centimetres, depending on the species. Like their relatives the ‘katydids’ and ‘crickets’, they have chewing mouthparts, two pairs of wings, one narrow and tough, the other wide and flexible, and long hind legs for jumping. They are different from these groups in having short antennae that do not reach very far back on their bodies.

A Grasshopper is an amazing insect that can leap 20 times the length of its own body. If you or I could do that, we would be able to jump almost 40 yards!

A Grasshopper does not actually ‘jump’. What they do is use their legs as a catapult. Grasshoppers can both jump and fly and they can reach a speed of 8 miles per hour when flying. There are about 18,000 different species of grasshoppers.

grasshopper-my photo

GRASSHOPPER HABITAT AND GRASSHOPPER DIET

Grasshoppers live in fields, meadows and just about anywhere they can find generous amounts of food to eat. A grasshopper has a hard shell and a full grown grasshopper is about one and a half inches, being so small you would not think they would eat much – but you would be so wrong – they eat lots and lots – an average grasshopper can eat 16 time its own weight.

The grasshoppers favourite foods are grasses, leaves and cereal crops.

grasshopper eating in one of my bird seed container-Red-legged Grasshopper

GRASSHOPPER BEHAVIOUR

Grasshoppers are most active during the day, but also feed at night. They do not have nests or territories and some species go on long migrations to find new supplies of food. Most species are solitary and only come together to mate, but the migratory species sometimes gather in huge groups of millions or even billions of individuals.

When a grasshopper is picked up, they ‘spit’ a brown liquid which is known as ‘tobacco juice’. Some scientists believe that this liquid may protect grasshoppers from attacks by insects such as ants and other predators – they ‘spit’ the liquid at them then catapult up and fly off quickly.

Grasshoppers also try to escape from their enemies hiding in the grass or among leaves. If you have ever tried to catch grasshoppers in a field, you know how quickly they can disappear by dropping down into the tall grass.

grasshopper on deck

GRASSHOPPER PREDATORS

The grasshoppers greatest enemies include various kinds of flies that lay their eggs in or near grasshopper eggs. After the fly eggs hatch, the newborn flies eat the grasshopper eggs. Some flies will even lay their eggs on the grasshoppers body, even while the grasshopper is flying. The newborn flies then eat the grasshopper. Other enemies of grasshoppers include beetles, birds, mice, snakes and spiders.

GRASSHOPPER REPRODUCTION

Grasshoppers reproduce in great numbers. As summer changes to autumn, male and female grasshoppers mate. Males fertilize the females, who will lay the eggs that will become next summer’s grasshopper population.

Finding a suitable location in soft earth, the female drives its elongated abdomen into the ground to deposit a cluster of eggs. A single female may lay as many as 300 eggs in a season. The eggs are covered with a sticky substance that helps protect them as they lie dormant underground through the winter.

grasshopper laying eggs

grasshopper life cycle

grasshopper in yard

Have a wonderful nature-filled week! Please be safe.