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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing locusts. All locusts are grasshoppers, but not all grasshoppers are locusts. “Locust” is the common name given to swarming grasshoppers. There are only about one or two dozen swarming grasshopper, or locust, species alive today. Also, grasshoppers and crickets can look similar, but they’re not the same animals. Katydids, who may look even more like grasshoppers than crickets are related to crickets. You can tell by checking out their antennae. Grasshoppers have short antennae while crickets and katydids have long antennae. Cicadas, specifically the gregarious ones that appear every thirteen or seventeen years, may also be erroneously called locusts because of their emergence in large groups. But cicadas aren’t really closely related to either crickets or grasshoppers, so cicadas aren’t locusts. We’ve talked about all of these other insects in previous videos if you want to learn more! Anyway!

Locusts are part of the family commonly called ‘short horned’ grasshoppers. There are over eight thousand species in this family and it makes up a majority of living grasshopper species, but remember, only about one or two dozen actually swarm and are then most appropriately known as locusts. These insects can be found on every continent except Antarctica and they are most abundant in tropical regions. Meadows and grasslands are favorite grasshopper habitats but they can also be found in swamps, coastal areas, and agricultural settings. Without the swarming behavior it’s nearly impossible to tell a locust from a non-swarming grasshopper. Locusts tend to change color when they begin to swarm, otherwise they’re the color of their environment. Grasshoppers are typically green or brown to match the plant material they live among.

As their common name implies, grasshoppers eat grass, though they’ll also take leaves, stems, and even other weak grasshoppers if food is scarce. When locusts swarm, they eat entire green areas until there’s nothing left. In fact, the name “locust” comes from Latin and means something along the lines of “burnt place” - which is exactly what an area left behind by locusts looks like. They can also be devastating to crops which is why they’re considered pests. Swarming grasshoppers occur on every continent grasshoppers live, so no one region is safe from their swarming cloud of terror. A locust swarm can consist of billions of individuals. Apparently grasshoppers like snuggles just as much as cats. After a heavy rainfall and a burst of vegetation growth, there are so many grasshopper nymphs in a single setting that they can’t help but bump into each other while they eat. This contact with one another raises the grasshopper’s serotonin levels, or the feel good chemicals in their brains, that their “swarm gene” gets switched on and as they molt into adults they emerge not as solitary grasshoppers but swarming locusts. Unless this happens, some species that are known as locusts can live out their days in solitude. It’s them getting together that makes them want to stay together in the first place. The swarms likely help protect them from predators such as birds, mammals, and reptiles, in a safety in numbers tactic.

In tropical regions, grasshoppers are present year round, in colder regions they are more seasonal with young overwintering and emerging in the spring. Grasshoppers undergo incomplete metamorphosis in which the eggs hatch into nymphs who look like smaller versions of the adults. These nymphs shed their exoskeleton multiple times before developing fully into adults. The adults get together and breed, the female often laying her eggs in plant roots, rotting woods, and even dung. She may lay up to 25 clutches of 10 to 60 eggs over the course of a few weeks. The adults perish within a few months and the cycle begins again the following spring. This cycle is less rigid in warmer regions, but the lifespan of the average grasshopper is about a year. In size, this family ranges anywhere from less than half an inch to more than ten inches in length!

For more facts on locusts, check out the links in the description. Thank you to hot hot chip and lie and john-o martin for today’s request! Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files!