Head to head
Grasshopper vs Cricket
Grasshoppers and crickets are both in the order Orthoptera and both have the big jumping hind legs the group is known for, but they sit in different suborders and differ in several consistent ways, from the length of their antennae to how and when they sing.
| Grasshopper | Cricket | |
|---|---|---|
| Suborder | Caelifera | Ensifera |
| Antennae | Short, usually shorter than the body | Long and thread-like, often longer than the body |
| Active when | Mostly by day | Mostly at night |
| How it sings | Scrapes a hind leg against a wing | Rubs the two forewings together |
| Ears | On the first segment of the abdomen | On the front legs, below the knee |
| Egg-laying tube | Short | Long and needle-like on the female |
| Diet | Plants only | Omnivore; plants, fungi, and other insects |
| Swarming form | Called a locust | Does not form migrating swarms |
Grasshopper vs Cricket: common questions
What is the easiest way to tell a grasshopper from a cricket?
Antenna length is the most reliable single feature. A grasshopper has short antennae, clearly shorter than its own body, while a cricket has very long, fine, whip-like antennae, often as long as or longer than the whole insect. Time of day and song help too, since a grasshopper is usually seen and heard by day, buzzing or clicking from grassland in sunshine, whereas a cricket is heard chirping at night. Colour is a rough guide, as grasshoppers are frequently green or the colour of dry grass and crickets are usually dark brown or black. If you can look closely, a female cricket has a long spike projecting from the rear, the egg-laying tube, which a grasshopper lacks.
Is a locust a grasshopper or a cricket?
A locust is a grasshopper. The word locust is not a separate kind of insect but a name for certain grasshopper species when they enter a swarming state. In these species the insects normally live as shy, solitary, camouflaged grasshoppers, but when a population boom followed by drying conditions crowds them together, the crowding itself triggers a change over one or two generations into a brighter, restless, highly gregarious form that gathers into bands and swarms and travels long distances stripping vegetation. In that condition the same insect is called a locust. Crickets do not do this and never form crop-destroying swarms.
Which one chirps at night outside my window?
That is almost certainly a cricket, or its close relative the katydid. True crickets, including field crickets calling from burrows and grass and house crickets that sometimes get indoors, are mainly night singers, and the steady, rhythmic chirp or trill of a warm evening is a male cricket rubbing his wings together to attract a female. Katydids add a raspier, buzzier night chorus in late summer. Grasshoppers, by contrast, call during the day, and their sound is a drier, buzzing or ticking noise made with the legs. So a pleasant chirping keeping you awake at night is a cricket; a daytime buzz from a sunny meadow is a grasshopper.