Cicadas and grasshoppers are often confused, though they are fundamentally distinct insects. This article clarifies their unique biological characteristics and explains why they are classified as separate groups.
Understanding Cicadas
Cicadas are known for their distinctive appearance and loud summer songs. Their life cycle begins with nymphs that spend a significant portion of their lives underground, sometimes for 13 or 17 years in the case of periodical cicadas, feeding on tree root sap. Once mature, they emerge, molt into winged adults, and reproduce.
Adult cicadas produce buzzing sounds using specialized structures called tymbals, located on their abdomen. These ribbed membranes vibrate rapidly, creating loud calls. Their diet consists exclusively of tree sap, which they extract using piercing-sucking mouthparts. Cicadas have sturdy bodies, clear, membranous wings, and prominent, widely set eyes.
Understanding Grasshoppers
Grasshoppers are recognized by their jumping ability and herbivorous diet. Their life cycle involves incomplete metamorphosis; nymphs hatch resembling miniature adults. These nymphs grow by molting, gradually increasing in size and developing wings until they reach adulthood.
Grasshoppers create sound through stridulation, rubbing their hind legs against their forewings or abdomen. This friction produces chirping or buzzing noises. Their primary food source is plant foliage, which they consume using chewing mouthparts called mandibles. Grasshoppers are characterized by their elongated hind legs, adapted for jumping, and their coloration often provides camouflage.
Why They Are Different
Cicadas and grasshoppers belong to entirely different insect orders, highlighting their fundamental biological differences. Cicadas are classified under Hemiptera, an order of true bugs characterized by their specialized piercing-sucking mouthparts. In contrast, grasshoppers are members of Orthoptera, known for chewing mouthparts and powerful hind legs.
Their feeding mechanisms clearly differentiate them. Cicadas use needle-like mouthparts to draw sap from plants, while grasshoppers employ mandibles to chew and consume plant leaves directly. Their sound production also varies. Cicadas rely on rapidly vibrating tymbals for their loud, continuous buzz, while grasshoppers create sounds through stridulation, a rubbing action of body parts.
Their life cycles also follow distinct developmental paths. Cicadas undergo a prolonged nymphal stage underground, sometimes lasting over a decade, before emerging as winged adults. Grasshoppers, however, experience incomplete metamorphosis, with nymphs developing directly into adults through a series of molts, typically within a single season. These distinctions in classification, diet, sound production, and life cycle establish them as separate insect species.