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GRASSHOPPER :

Grasshoppers and locusts are the same: when they emigrate in swarms they are called locusts.  A grasshopper’s eardrum is on its abdomen, so you could say they hear with their bellies. The fossil record shows that grasshoppers have been around for 200 million years and had evolved before the dinosaurs appeared.

Grasshoppers are good at detecting rhythm, but bad at detecting differences in pitch of notes. They make noises by stridulating (rubbing the hind leg against the wing) and crepitating (snapping the wing in flight). The 10,000 or so different species of grasshopper have distinct identifying rhythms.

In Japan, grasshoppers are seen as a sign of good luck. Grasshoppers can jump a height of about 25cm and length of a metre. A small cuticle in a grasshopper’s knee acts as a spring and lets it catapult its body into the air. Eating insects is called ‘entomophagy’. Chapulines fundido (grasshopper fondue) consists of crispy fried grasshoppers on a bed of a puree of grasshoppers with shallots, garlic and chilli. 

Because grasshoppers have such powerful jumping legs, people sometimes don't realize they have wings, too! Most grasshoppers are pretty strong fliers, and will make good use of their wings to escape predators. Their jumping ability just gives them a boost into the air.

A lone grasshopper doesn't do much harm, although it eats about half its body weight in plants per day. But when locusts swarm, their combined feeding habits can completely defoliate a landscape, leaving farmers without crops and people without food. In the U.S. alone, grasshoppers cause about $1.5 billion in damage to grazing lands each year.