Hidden facts about grasshoppers

Let’s recall fancy childhood memories of trying to catch grasshoppers in our backyards or garden. It was fun.

I could also recall secondary school, when we were asked to label a grasshopper, it had no ears in the labeling.

*  Do you know grasshoppers have ears on their stomach.

Grasshoppers hear the songs of its fellow grasshoppers through its simple eardrum known as tympana. This auditory organ is hidden under the wings on each side of the first abdominal segment.

                Although, they can hear, grasshoppers cannot distinguish pitches very well but only detect the differences in intensity and rhythm.

Each specie has a characteristic rhythm that distinguishes its songs from others species and this also aids courting males and females species in locating each other.

*   Do you know grasshoppers are good source of protein?

John the Baptist had one of the best meal of his life when he had locusts and honey in the wilderness.

In some regions of Africa, America and Asia, grasshoppers are a regular meal and from findings, grasshoppers are delicious. So, the next time you need some good source of protein you should try grasshoppers. Lol!

*   Do you know that grasshoppers and locusts are same?

According to 2010 article on locusts by Alexandre Vsevolo Latchininsky, which was published in the encyclopedia of animal behavior, he explained saying “all locusts are grasshoppers b

'ut not all grasshoppers are locusts”

Locusts are tagged “short-horned grasshoppers and the major difference between them is the behavioral states of each. Locus can exist in two behavioral states- solitary and gregarious but grasshoppers do not.

Now you know.

 What are those other hidden facts or myths you know about grasshoppers?

Photo credit: Scientificamerica