The insect order Orthoptera includes familiar insects like grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, and katydids. The members of this group are readily identified by their strong hind legs which are modified for jumping. Orthopterans are well known for their ability to produce sound. Crickets and katydids sing by rubbing their front wings together; while grasshoppers and locusts scrape their legs against their forewings to produce their songs.
Orthoptera comprises more than 20000 species worldwide and 1044 species in Europe belonging to two suborders, Caelifera (grasshoppers) and Ensifera (katydids). This group of median-sized insects is well characterized by (1) long hind legs modified for jumping; (2) hardened, leathery forewings (tegmina) which are spread in flight and covering membranous hindwings at rest; (3) unsegmented cerci; and (4), a pronotum usually with large descending lateral lobes. Orthopterans are common in most terrestrial habitats, but are more diverse in the tropics. They are mostly phytophagous and include some outstanding agricultural pests (locusts and certain katydids).
They're the background sound of a deep summer day, a sonic shorthand for sunshine and ease: cricket chirps and katydid buzzes and grasshopper rattles, ever-present and seemingly endless.
Yet for all their ubiquity, these creatures -- taxonomically grouped as Orthoptera, the calling insects -- are little appreciated. Bees are beloved for their industry, butterflies for their beauty and even ants for their social intricacy, but Orthoptera has few devotees. We hear them but don't know them.
Order Orthoptera consists of grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets.More than 20, 000 species have been described.They vary from about five millimeters to eleven centimeters in length.They can be found throughout the world, but are more concentrated in tropical areas because they prefer warmth and sunlight. Species in deserts or grasslands tend to have wings and species inhabiting mountaintops or islands tend to be wingless.Their legs are long and made for jumping.Most males rub their wings or legs together to produce vibrations that can be picked up by another individual’s tympanum (ear).All of the species undergo incomplete metamorphosis.The nymphs usually molt four or more times before becoming adults.If a limb is lost, the nymph can regenerate it during the next molt.Orthopterans can shed limbs voluntarily if a predator grasps it or it gets caught in a spider web.They can be seen in the fossil record as far back as the Upper Carboniferous-Permian.
