acrido-, acrid-, acris-

(Greek: grasshopper, grasshoppers; locust, locusts; cricket, crickets)

acridid (s) (noun), acridids (pl)
1. A grasshopper or locust with short antennae, a short-horned grasshopper: An acridid is one of several kinds of terrestrial plant eating insects of the family Acrididae with hind legs adapted for leaping and with short antennae, and which commonly migrate in swarms that strip the vegetation from large areas.

Acridids, or grasshoppers with short antennae, are related to the crickets (Gryllidae) and to the long-horned grasshoppers and katydids (Locustidae).
2. Any of various cicadas: The seventeen-year locust is considered to be an acridid.

Acrididae (pl) (noun)
Short-horned grasshoppers or true locusts: Woodchats certainly love to feed on Acrididae, in addition to beetles, dragonflies, and bees.
Acrididae (pl) (noun)
The family of orthopterous insects which includes the true locusts and the grasshoppers with short antennae: Acrididae are the family of a large and diverse number of insects in the order Orthoptera which consists of the locusts and true grasshoppers. There are about 7,000 species in 1,100 genera.

acridology (s) (noun) (no pl)
The scientific study of grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets: Since she was a little girl, Lynn was intrigued by grasshoppers and wanted to learn more about them, and so she began to take courses in acridology at the university in her city.

Extending her abdomen to about twice its normal length, a female locust deposits a pod of some 70 rice-size eggs four inches deep in moist sand.

Sensors at the end of her tail test moisture, salinity, temperature, and the softness of the ground to ensure that conditions are proper for laying her eggs.

To hatch, the eggs must absorb their weight in water, ideally in the first five days. During the last weeks of her four-month life, the gregarious female lays three times, usually a total of about 200 eggs.

Big-eyed hoppers hatch from the warm sands. The locusts promptly shed their natal skins, turn dark after about two hours in the sun, and within a few days they begin to move off in dense swarms.

—Compiled from "Locusts: 'Teeth of the Wind' ";
by Robert A.M. Conley; National Geographic;
August, 1969; page 216-217.
acridophage, acridophagy (s) (noun), acridophages (pl)
1. A grasshopper and/or locust that eats plants, both wild and agriculturally grown: Acridophage is a term for a terrestrial plant-eating insect with hind legs adapted for jumping and that devours wheat, barley, corn, rye and oats.
2. The consumption of grasshoppers: Acridophagy refers to the ingestion of grasshoppers, locusts, or crickets that are protein rich foods in certain austere climatic regions.
Pointing to a page about acridophagy or the eating of insects. Hunter-gathers eating grasshoppers at acridophagy.
acridophagous (adjective) (not comparable)
1. Relating to the process whereby grasshoppers and locusts consume vast areas of vegetable matter: Such plant-eating insects as the grasshoppers and locusts have an acridophagous method of swarming in large numbers and devouring whole crops of grain in a very short time.
2. Referring to the consumption of grasshoppers, locusts, and/or crickets: It is said that there are acridophagoous tribes in Africa that eat grasshoppers as part of their diet.

Storks flash white against the chocolate brown water as they bank in and out of the locusts; then come weaver birds and wagtails, picking at the remaining locusts.

The attackers gorge themselves until they can no longer fly. Some of them settle on banyan trees or fall to the ground.

There are cattle egrets, with sagging stomachs, that stagger in the dust trying to take off. Some of them manage a few limp flaps of their wings, then they topple on their sides, while the rest of the locusts continue flying on with no further molestations.

—Compiled from "Locusts: 'Teeth of the Wind' ";
by Robert A.M. Conley; National Geographic;
August, 1969; page 213.
acridophagy (s) (noun) (no pl)
The eating or consuming by grasshoppers, locusts, and/or crickets: Acridophagy is the process that involves the devouring of vast amounts of plants by grasshoppers, but especially by hordes of locusts in certain parts of the world.

With serrated jaws rasping from side to side, adult locusts daily eat the equivalent of their weight, .04 to .09 of an ounce. Yet they are capable of living four days without feeding by surviving on stored fat.

Typical of the countless billions that impoverish African and Asian farmers, these voracious eaters feast on crops of leaves, stalks, and tons of grains.

—Compiled from "Locusts: 'Teeth of the Wind' ";
by Robert A.M. Conley; National Geographic;
August, 1969; page 206.
acridophile (s) (noun), acridophiles (pl)
A bird or animal that has a desire for grasshoppers and/or locusts for consumption: A black-winged pratincole is one example of an acridophile that eats locusts. The rose-colored starling in India is another acridophile that is also called the "locust bird".
acridophilous (adjective), more acridophilous, most acridophilous
Descriptive of a hunger for the consumption of grasshoppers and/or locusts: Creatures that have an acidophilous desire for grasshoppers include wasps, robber flies, ground beetles, blue birds, and parasitoids, such as hair worms and flesh flies.

Most of a locust's natural enemies are primarily beetles, flies, and wasps that are neither numerous enough on the ground nor mobile enough in the air to challenge vast swarms of locusts.

Birds regularly attack locusts, but their effect is only marginal. African kites drop from the sky and they barrel-roll through the swarm, grabbing locusts with snaps of their beaks, then they climb high to peel off again.

—Compiled from "Locusts: 'Teeth of the Wind' ";
by Robert A.M. Conley; National Geographic;
August, 1969; page 213.
acridophily (s) (noun), acridophilies (pl)
1. An appetite for grasshoppers, locusts, or crickets as a supply of food: The desire and the consumption of crickets, or acridophily, can be exemplified by wasps, ground beetles, and blue birds.
2. The term acrido- in the entries related to locusts or grasshoppers is derived from Acrididae, which consists of the locusts and true grasshoppers.
Example of an acridograsshopper.
acridophobe (s) (noun), acridophobes (pl)
Someone who has a fear of or an aversion to grasshoppers and/or locusts: An acridophobe can be a person who has experienced clouds of locusts miles wide which have been described as the "teeth of the wind" knowing that they are capable of destroying vast amounts of crops.

Lynn's sister was an acridophobe who had a horror of grasshoppers when she was young.

acridophobia (s) (noun), acridophobias (pl)
A great hatred of certain insects based on the vast amounts of destruction which are caused by such bugs: Acridophobia involves disastrous swarms of grasshoppers and locusts that are like gigantic animated tumbleweeds that roll onward, during which the forward edge descends to feed as others pass overhead, and those that are left behind rise up and rejoin the hoard as they move on to consume other areas of vegetation.
acridophobic (adjective), more acridophobic, most acridophobic
Relating to the hatred of grasshoppers and locusts which consume great areas of vegetation: Some farmers in the midwest of the U.S. have severe acridophobic feelings regarding the plagues that such grain eaters cause, especially those who have lost their crops because of such devastators.
cricket (s) (noun), crickets (pl)
The common name for a members of the Orthoptera, an order of insects: The Orthoptera consist of the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, having straight folded posterior wings, incomplete metamorphosis (change in animal form), and usually enlarged hind legs and stridulation organs which provide a shrill grating or chirping noise made by rubbing body parts together.
grasshopper (s) (noun), grasshoppers (pl)
Any of numerous insects of the families Locustidae or Acrididae (short-horned grasshoppers) and Tettigoniidae (long-horned grasshoppers): Grasshoppers are often destructive to plants and characteristically have long hind legs adapted for jumping.

Around the world there are hundreds of species of grasshoppers which is a group that includes crickets and locusts.

Grasshoppers are difficult to see in the grass where they live, but they can often be heard since each species has a characteristic song, produced by rubbing the wings or legs together.

The song is used by males to attract females and, less frequently, by females to attract males.

American Heritage Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary;
Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston, Massachusetts; 1987; page 733.