Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson LXXX · Topic 11: Grasshoppers, crickets and cockroaches
80. The red-legged grasshopper
Goal: Your child can explain how a grasshopper is built for jumping, eating grass and hiding, and find its eyes, ears and breathing holes.
You'll need
- A grassy field or roadside in late summer
- A clear jar or plastic cup with a lid with air holes, and a sprig of fresh grass
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A measuring tape
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
Comstock's story of the grasshopper as a jumper, with a labeled drawing of its body and one of its mouth-parts. Then Lesson LXXX's leading thought, method and twelve questions on legs, feet, eyes, jaws, wings, breathing, ears, winter and the long-horned grasshoppers.
The lesson, step by step
When and where
Late summer and early fall, in sunny fields, meadows and roadsides. Comstock asks you to "encourage the pupils to study these insects in the field." In grass and woods, wear long pants tucked into socks, and check everyone for ticks when you get home.
Handle gently
Catch a grasshopper by cupping it in your hands or with the jar, and keep it only for this lesson. It may kick (the spines on its legs can prickle) and spit a brown drop; both are harmless. When you have finished looking, put every creature back where you found it.
Keep the big idea in mind
Comstock's "leading thought" is the one idea the lesson is meant to lead to. Read it to yourself now, and save it to share at the end, after your child has looked and answered:
The grasshopper feeds upon grass and other herbage and is especially fitted for living in grassy fields. Its color protects it from being seen by its enemies the birds. If attacked, it escapes by long jumps and by flight. It can make long journeys on the wing.
Built to jump
Which pair of legs is the longest? Which the shortest?
Watch the grasshopper prepare to jump and describe the process. How do you think it manages to throw itself so far? If a man were as good a jumper as a grasshopper in comparison to his size, he could jump 300 feet high or 500 feet in distance.
Back in the field, mark where a grasshopper takes off and lands, and measure the jump. How many of its own body lengths is that?
Face to face
With the grasshopper in the jar, use the hand lens.
Look the grasshopper in the face. Where are the compound eyes situated? Can you see the tiny simple eyes like mere dots?
How does a grasshopper eat? Do the jaws move up and down or sidewise?
Push a fresh grass blade in and watch.
Wings, breathing and ears
How many pairs of wings has it? Does it use the first pair of wings to fly with?
Describe the movement of the abdomen as the insect breathes. Can you see the spiracles or breathing pores?
Comstock says the ear is on the side of the first segment of the abdomen, under the wings. Look for a small round patch there.
Put it into words
Let the grasshopper go. Ask your child to tell how it is made for grass, for hiding and for escaping. Then read the leading thought aloud.
Nature notebook
Draw a grasshopper from the side and label: compound eye, antenna, jaws, front wing, hind leg with its big thigh, breathing holes, ear. Write how far the one you measured jumped.
Afterwards
Comstock's question 12: look for long-horned grasshoppers too, with antennæ longer than their bodies. They lead into the next lesson, the katydid.