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Calendar
BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008
Details...
 
Photos from the last gathering (Minnesota 2007)

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Order Orthoptera - Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids

Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Saltatoria
Throughout the orthoptera, there is a tendency by some authorities to elevate some subfamilies to families, and by other authorities to demote families to subfamilies.
Explanation of Names
Orthoptera: from the Greek "orthos" (straight) + "pteron" (wing).
Numbers
Insects of Cedar Creek cites "1,082 species" in North America.
Worldwide, more than 20,000 species.
Life Cycle
Orthoptera have incomplete metamorphosis.
In most crickets and katydids, the female mounts the male for mating, shown in figure 16 of Capinera. (1) This is apparently the primitive (original) behavior in Orthoptera. Short-horned Grasshoppers (Acrididae) have a contorted mating posture with the male mounting the female, but the abdomen twisted strangely. See Capinera, Field Guide to Grasshoppers, figures 15 and 16. (1) See this photo of mating Acrididae in the genus Melanoplus:

Internet References
classification plus literature citations, synonym, and included taxa (Orthoptera Species File)
Wikipedia: Orthoptera
Works Cited
1.Field Guide To Grasshoppers, Katydids, And Crickets Of The United States
By John L. Capinera, Ralph D. Scott, Thomas J. Walker