Long-Horned Grasshoppers
Family Tettigoniidae
(pronounced 'TedigonEEday')

Characteristics:
* Family includes 8 subfamilies and all species of meadow, cone-headed, and shield-backed grasshoppers, and katydids.
* Grasshoppers large, greenish to brownish, with 4-segmented tarsi.
* Wings smaller than short-horned grasshoppers, but antennae extend at least the entire body length.
* Body length: 1-2".

Natural History:
* Habitat: Fields, meadows.
* Range: Throughout the United States and Canada.
* Voice: At night, katydids sing a song that sounds like katy-did, katy-didn't. Male grasshoppers are noted for their chirping songs, produced when two body parts are rubbed against each other.
* Behavior: Feed on green vegetation. Eggs laid on leaves.
* Native.

Connections!
* Americans usually do not view grasshoppers as an acceptable food source. However, they provide much more protein and calories than beef, and are very economical to harvest. Grasshoppers contains 1,365 calories per pound, while beef contains only 1,240. In ancient Greece, grasshoppers were sold at markets to be ground into flour or served whole, as tasty appetizers.

* Medicinally, grasshoppers have been used to treat ear and throat disorders.

* In Indo-Malaysian and Moslem traditions, grasshoppers were symbols of nobility; those who wished to indicate noble descent and local prestige wore golden grasshoppers in their hair.