Life cycle of the grasshopper Simple metamorphosis

Reproduction  Male introduces sperm into the females ovipositor  Sperm enters the eggs through fine canals called micropyles  The female inserts the eggs one to two inches underground in summer  She sprays the eggs with a slick substance which forms a pod  Pod contains 15 to 150 eggs  Each female can lay up too 25 pods

Egg to nymph  Grasshoppers undergo simple metamorphosis  Egg are oval, the size of kernels of rice  Eggs may be white, yellow-green, tan, or various shades of brown  Eggs hatch into nymphs, which look like little adults without wings or reproductive organs

Metamorphosis of the nymph  Newly hatched nymphs are white  With exposure to sunlight they assume distinctive color and markings of adults  Picture shows six stages of development from small wingless nymph to fully grown winged adult  Grasshoppers do not take care of their young once they have hatched

Grasshoppers in popular culture  “The ant and the grasshopper”, written by Aesop ( BC)  In “Poprygunya” written by Chekhov in 1892 an unfaithful woman (hopping from man to man) was known as a grasshopper.  Later those who were unable to focus on a single subject (hopping from one thing to another) was said to have a grasshopper’s mind.  Recently, ( ) in the T.V. show Kung Fu, the trainee, who had much to learn, was called grasshopper.  In the 1998 movie, “A Bug’s Life” the heroes are members of an ant colony, and the villain is, who else, the grasshopper.