ORTHOPTERA (GRASHOPPERS)

Orthoptera (from the Ancient Greek orthós, meaning "straight" or "right," and pteron, meaning "wing") are paurometabolous insects with chewing mouthparts. The order Orthoptera comprises 24,300 species, mostly tropical, but distributed worldwide. Grasshoppers, crickets, locusts, mole crickets (Gryllotalpidae), and beetroots belong to this order. The largest living orthopteran is the giant New Zealand cricket called the weta. Fossil remains of proto-orthoptera have been found as early as the Carboniferous and Permian periods, reaching their full development in the Mesozoic era (Protogryllus).