Aquatic Pygmy Grasshopper vs Mormon Cricket

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Aquatic Pygmy Grasshopper Mormon Cricket
Scientific Name Scelimena producta Anabrus simplex
Order Orthoptera Orthoptera
Family Tetrigidae Tettigoniidae
Size 12-18 mm 30-50 mm
Habitat Rivers & Streams Mountains
Diet Herbivores Carrion Feeders
Regions Southeast Asia North America
Conservation Least Concern Least Concern

Aquatic Pygmy Grasshopper

A remarkable semi-aquatic pygmy grasshopper with paddle-like hind legs used for swimming. It dives and swims underwater to feed on aquatic algae.

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Did You Know?

It is one of the very few grasshoppers in the world that can swim underwater, using its flattened hind legs as paddles.

Mormon Cricket

A large, flightless shield-backed katydid native to western North America. Despite its name it is not a true cricket but rather a katydid.

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Did You Know?

In 1848 a massive Mormon cricket outbreak threatened settler crops in Utah until flocks of California gulls arrived and devoured them, an event celebrated as the Miracle of the Gulls.