Q 01/05

Grasshoppers belong to which insect suborder?

A) Ensifera

B) Caelifera

C) Zygoptera

D) Heteroptera

Answer · why

B) Caelifera

The name is Latin for 'chisel-bearing', after the shape of the female's ovipositor; crickets and katydids form the sister suborder Ensifera.

Q 02/05

Grasshoppers, locusts and crickets all belong to which insect order?

A) Orthoptera

B) Hemiptera

C) Coleoptera

D) Hymenoptera

Answer · why

A) Orthoptera

The name comes from the Greek for 'straight wings'; the order holds more than 20,000 species.

Q 03/05

Grasshoppers date back to roughly when?

A) The Eocene, about 50 million years ago

B) The Cretaceous, about 100 million years ago

C) The early Triassic, about 250 million years ago

D) The Cambrian, about 500 million years ago

Answer · why

C) The early Triassic, about 250 million years ago

That makes them possibly the oldest living group of chewing plant-eating insects.

Q 04/05

Where is a grasshopper's hearing organ located?

A) On the abdomen

B) On the front legs

C) On the antennae

D) Behind the eyes

Answer · why

A) On the abdomen

The tympanal organs sit on the first abdominal segment, tucked under the wings; crickets and katydids keep theirs elsewhere.

Q 05/05

A young grasshopper nymph goes through how many moults before adulthood?

A) Two

B) Ten

C) Five

D) Twenty

Answer · why

C) Five

As hemimetabolous insects they skip the pupal stage and simply grow more adult-like at each moult.