grasshopper

Any of several insects with strongly developed hind legs, enabling them to leap into the air. The hind leg in the male usually has a row of protruding joints that produce the characteristic chirping sound when rubbed against the hard wing veins. Locusts, crickets, and katydids are related to grasshoppers. (Families Acrididae and Tettigoniidae, order Orthoptera.)

The short-horned grasshoppers constitute the family Acrididae, and include locusts. All members of the family feed voraciously on vegetation. Eggs are laid in a small hole in the ground, and the unwinged larvae become adult after about six moults.

The American grasshopper (Schistocera americana) is widespread in North America. The long-horned grasshoppers, or katydids, form the family Tettigoniidae, and have a similar life history, but differ from the Acrididae in having long antennae and in producing their chirping by the friction of the wing covers over one another (stridulation).