Meadow Grasshopper

As their name suggests, Meadow Grasshoppers prefer grassland habitats. They are common and widespread in Britain.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Chorthippus parallelus
Family: 
Grasshoppers and Locusts
Family Latin name: 
ACRIDIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

Meadow Grasshoppers may be green with brown wings or entirely green. Females can also be vivid pink. Whereas males have full-length wings reaching almost to the end of their abdomen, females have smaller, undeveloped ones that are half that length.

These grasshoppers can be distinguished by their near-parallel keels, and by the black patches on the 'knees' of their hind legs. Both males and females have a pronotum (the plate behind their heads) that is very slightly curved outwards as it reaches the abdomen, but otherwise has almost straight sides.

As their name suggests, Meadow Grasshoppers prefer grassland habitats. They are common and widespread in Britain.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
An adult female Meadow Grasshopper, Heene Cemetery, Worthing, August 2020.
Meadow Grasshoppers may be green with brown wings or entirely green. Females can also be vivid pink.
Meadow Grasshopper can be distinguished by the black patches on the 'knees' of their hind legs.
An adult female Meadow Grasshopper, Heene Cemetery, Worthing, July 2021.
An adult male Meadow Grasshopper, Heene Cemetery, Worthing, July 2021
A Meadow Grasshopper photographed in the Cemetery in early July 2022.

Details

Species family information

Although Bush-crickets and Grasshoppers are related, there are distinct differences between the two families. Crickets stridulate by rubbing their wings together at dusk, their 'ears' being on their front legs. (In contrast, Grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their hind legs against their wings, their 'ears' being at the base of their abdomen.) Whereas Grasshoppers are mostly herbivores, Crickets are omnivores. Bush-crickets have long, thin antennae (in contrast to the shorter, stockier ones that Grasshoppers have). The members of the Grasshopper and Locust family have short, stout antennae and the sound producing tympana membranes on the side of the first abdominal segment. The back legs have three segments. They have ridges along the top edge of the thorax, called keels, which are useful for identification. Grasshoppers have a three stage life-cycle, egg, nymph (going through five moulting instar phases, during which the wings gradually develop), and adult, when final wing development occurs. The most notorious members of this family are the locusts, although these are only rarely found in Britain. We have a photograph-filled blog post about all the grasshoppers and bush-crickets that we have seen in the Cemetery that may be worth your time.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!