Crickets and Grasshoppers
Crickets and grasshoppers belong to the insect order orthoptera. Orthoperans, which also include the katydids, are well-camouflaged insects that feed on living or dead vegetation matter using their biting mouthparts. They have two pairs of wing. The forewings are thicker than the hindwings. One of the distinctive characteristics of crickets and grasshoppers is their long and strong pair of hindlegs that enable them to jump quite a distance to evade danger, to move to another patch or to gain momentum as they take off to the air.
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The long antenna and ovipositor of a cricket. |
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A grasshopper has short antenna. |
A prominent feature of crickets that distinguish them from grasshoppers is their thin and long antenna. As seen in the pictures above, the cricket’s antenna is longer than its body, whereas the grasshopper has much shorter antenna. The ovipositor, a tubular structure that extends from the abdomen of insects for laying eggs, is much longer in crickets than grasshoppers. In addition, crickets chirp by rubbing their wings together; grasshoppers chirp by rubbing their legs against their wings.