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KINGDOM : Animalia
PHYLUM : Arthropoda
CLASS : Insecta
ORDER : Orthoptera
SUPERFAMILY : Acrididae
FAMILY : Oedipodinae
TRIBE : Locustini
GENUS : Gastrimargus
SPECIES : Africanus
SUBSPECIES : Parvulus
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The Acrididae are the predominant family of grasshoppers, comprising some 10,000 of the 11,000 species of the entire suborder Caelifera. Most grasshoppers that you find in your garden, along the side of the road, or perhaps while walking through a summer meadow belong to the family Acrididae. The Acrididae are best known because all locusts are of the Acrididae. The subfamily Oedipodinae is sometimes classified as a distinct family Oedipodidae in the superfamily Acridoidea. Acrididae grasshoppers are characterized by relatively short and stout antennae, and tympana on the side of the first abdominal segment. In the Acrididae family, the ears, or auditory organs, are located on the sides of the first abdominal segments and are covered by the wings .Their antennae are short, typically extending less than half the grasshopper's body length. A plate-like structure called the pronotum covers the grasshopper's thorax, or chest, never extending beyond the base of the wings. The tarsi, or back legs, have three segments. Many male grasshoppers in the family Acrididae employ courtship calls to attract mates. Most of them use a form of stridulation, in which they rub pegs on the inside of their hind legs against a thickened edge of the wing to create their familiar songs. Band-winged grasshoppers snap their wings while in flight, making an audible crackle. In some species, the male may continue to guard the female after mating, riding on her back for a day or more to discourage her from mating with other males.
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