The difference between grasshopper and locust

What is the difference between grasshopper and locust? In fact, grasshoppers are locusts, and locusts are also grasshoppers. Grasshoppers are the common name for locusts, and they can also be called grasshoppers. Locusts are very common in our daily lives, and we often caught them to play with when we were young. There are many types of locusts, and their appearances are different, but their habits are similar. Let’s take a look at the specific characteristics of locusts.

Characteristics of locusts:

The hind legs are well developed, and it can use them to jump distances dozens of times longer than its body. In insects with incomplete metamorphosis, the larvae and adults are similar, the only difference is the presence or absence of wings. The hind wings are translucent. The wings of some species of locusts have degenerated and become smaller, and some species, such as the diamondback locust, have lost the ability to fly.

The body color is green and brown, which has nothing to do with the species; it is a protective color for the living environment. Locusts have large mouths and well-developed jaws and feed on plant leaves. They like to eat reeds, barnyard grass, white grass, dogtooth grass, wormwood, shrimp grass and sea salis. Some locust species are omnivorous and also eat dead insects, even the bodies of their own kind. Male insects of some species make sounds to attract females, but they do so by rubbing their wings and hind legs together, unlike crickets, which use the sound organs in their front wings to make sounds.

It is usually green, brown or black, with a large head and short antennae; the pronotum is hard and extends to the left and right like a saddle, and the mesothorax and metathorax are fused and cannot move. The legs, especially the hind legs, have strong muscles and a hard exoskeleton, making it an expert in jumping. The tibia also has sharp thorns, which are effective defensive weapons. The ovipositor has no obvious protrusion, which is the biggest difference from katydids.

After mating, the female locust inserts the ovipositor into the soil 10 cm deep and lays about 50 eggs. When laying eggs, the female insect secretes a white substance to form a cylindrical plug, and then lays the eggs.

Locust eggs hatch in about 21 days. The hatched larvae crawl out of the soil. At this time, their appearance is very similar to that of the adults, but they have no wings and their body color is lighter. The nymphs in the first one or two instars look more like adults, but with a disproportionate head and body. By the third instar, wing buds appear, and by the fourth instar, the wing buds are already very obvious. At the fifth instar, the nymphs are already mature and after a few days of feeding, they will crawl onto the plant, hang their bodies down, and wait for a while before emerging as adults. (Morphology and living habits): Both the adults and larvae of locusts can chew the stems and leaves of plants with their well-developed chewing mouthparts.