Acrididae
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Grasshoppers can be important herbivores. There are sometimes so many, eating so much, that they change the richness and abundance of plant species where they live.
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
Grasshoppers jump or fly away, and then hide if they can. Some species eat toxic plants and keep the toxins in their bodies to discourage predators.
Known Predators:
- Carabidae (eat eggs)
- Hymenoptera
- Formicidae
- praying mantids
- Araneae (any kind that is big enough)
- Acari (eat eggs, parasites on adults)
- Chilopoda
- Anura
- Anura
- Squamata
- Squamata
- Aves
- small mammals especially Soricidae
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
حيوان/ طفيل/ طفيل داخلى
يرقة Mermis nigrescens تتطفل داخل تجويف جسم فصيلة الجراديات
حيوان/ شبه طفيل
يرقة Sarcophila latifrons شبه طفيل على فصيلة الجراديات
ملاحظات: أخرى: غير مؤكدة
حيوان/ مفترس
يرقة Stomorhina lunata مفترس لكيس بيض الجراديات
أخرى: حدها العائل / فريسة
Grasshoppers mainly use sound and sight to communicate, though like animals, scent and touch are important during mating. In some species males vibrate their wings or rub their wings with their legs to make sounds that attract females.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
Grasshoppers all hatch from eggs, and as they grow they go through incomplete metamorphosis. This means that each stage looks a lot like the adult, but adds a few changes each time the young grasshopper sheds its skin. Grasshoppers usually shed 5 or 6 times. After the last time, they are adults and can reproduce. Most species also get wings when they are adults.
Development - Life Cycle: metamorphosis
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| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
Most grasshoppers can only survive the winter as an egg; the adults all die when it gets cold. In warm climates which don't have freezing winters, grasshoppers can probably live longer, maybe for several years. Most die long before that though, from disease or predators or drought.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
After mating, each female produces a clutch of eggs in her abdomen, usually 8-25 eggs. When they are ready, she pushes her abdomen down in the ground and makes a layer of foam. Then she lays the eggs. When the foam dries it forms a tough and waterproof eggpod, and protects the eggs until they hatch. They hatchlings climb up through the foam and out into the world. If they have enough food, and live long enough, each female can produce several egg pods before she dies.
Breeding season: Spring or summer
Range eggs per season: 10.0 to 200.0.
Average eggs per season: 50.0.
Range gestation period: 25.0 (high) weeks.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female): 8.0 to 50.0 weeks.
Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male): 8.0 to 50.0 weeks.
Key Reproductive Features: semelparous ; iteroparous ; seasonal breeding ; parthenogenic ; sexual ; fertilization (Internal ); oviparous ; sperm-storing
Females try to choose a good place to lay their eggs, but that's the only care they give. They do not take care of their babies.
Parental Investment: no parental involvement
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2012, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
| Source | http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Acrididae/ |
Stretchy membrane aids oviposition: locust
The intersegmental membranes of a pregnant female locust helps her deposit her eggs about 8 centimeters underground due to stress-softening of the membrane.
"While a stretchy nuchal ligament can act as a shock absorber, a stretchy tendon would undo the shortening of the muscle that it attaches to a bone. The current record holder, the intersegmental membrane of the pregnant female locust, achieved its renown in an investigation by Vincent (1975); it's made of about 12 percent protein and 12 percent chitin, with the rest water, and it undergoes something called 'stress-softening.' Mother locust, a creature of dry habitats, stretches these membranes between her abdominal segments to get her eggs about 8 centimeters underground--deep enough so the desiccated eggs have a reliable source of water. The eggs are kept fairly dry before being expelled, presumably so the locust can hold a large number and still fly." (Vogel 2003:314)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Steven Vogel. 2003. Comparative Biomechanics: Life's Physical World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 580 p.
| License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
| Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
| Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/4d13180c28712980ccae88c5c5123917 |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) Stats
Specimen Records: 7061
Specimens with Sequences: 6147
Specimens with Barcodes: 5331
Species: 596
Species With Barcodes: 528
Public Records: 2089
Public Species: 396
Public BINs: 265
مواقع الجمع: خريطة العالم توضح مواقع جمع عينات فصيلة النطاطات Acrididae .