GRASSHOPPER, the English name of many species of insects, forming a family of the order orthoptera, section saltatoria, called gryllida by sonic (chiefly English) entomo logists, and locustithe by others—those who adopt the former name designating the crickets (q.v.) acheticice. Locusts (q.v.), however, do not belong to this family, although very closely allied, but are distinguished from it by greater robustness of frame, shorter legs, and shorter antennm. The antennm of the grasshoppers are long and threadlike, as in the cricket. The wings of grasshoppers, as of locusts, fold together like the sides of a roof, while those of crickets are horizontal when at rest. Grasshoppers, like crickets and locusts, have the thighs of the hinder legs very large and adapted for leap ing. But grasshoppers do not leap with so great energy as locusts, nor are they capable of so sustained a flight. There are, indeed, sonic of the family in which the wings are merely rudimental, and the elytrte or wing-covers of small size. Most of them, how ever, have well-developed wings ; and the wing-covers of the males, as in crickets, have a spot at the base of a talc-like appearance, by the rubbing together of which that chirping sound is produced which is probably connected with the sexual instincts of the insects, but which we have learned to associate with the brightest of green pastures and of sunshiny days. Grasshoppers are herbivorous. They are numerous in most parts
of the world. The largest British species is the great green grasshopper (gryllus viridis simus, also known as locusta viridissima and acrida viridissima), about 2 in. in length, and of a fine green color; a somewhat rare insect in Britain, although not uncommon in some parts of Europe. A green color prevails among the grasshoppers Of Britain, and generally of temperate climates, enabling them more readily to elude observation among the herbage in midst of which they live; but some of the tropical species are richly colored, and some have very large wings, almost like those of lepidopterous insects. The greater number of grasshoppers feed on grass and the leaves of herbaceous plants, but some prefer the leaves of trees.