How bugs eat - Grasshoppers

Insects tend to be quite small. Even large insects are small when compared to most animals that people are familiar with (dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc.). This makes it kind of difficult to watch how an insect eats. However, it is fascinating to watch how an insect's mouth parts all work together to help it eat.

When I was asked to give a bug demonstration to some Cub scouts, I immediately knew that I wanted to show them how an insect eats. It is both cool and gross at the same time, perfect for the age group. I decided to use a grasshopper as an example because 1) it was a great time of year to catch grasshoppers and 2) grasshoppers are on the larger side and it would be easier to film.

I went outside, caught a grasshopper, and then brought it inside to film. I usually like to do all my photographing and filming out in a natural setting, but I didn't think I would be able to get a good enough shot for the demonstration. I used some forceps to restrain the grasshopper, set up my camera, and grabbed a piece of grass. One of the resulting videos is below (slowed down to about half speed).


As you can see, grasshoppers look quite alien as they eat. Their mouth parts retract to expose their mandibles (the big black parts that do the chomping in the video). Check out this page for a visual explanation of the parts you see in the video.

Overall I was quite pleased with how the video turned out. It is sufficiently creepy yet also educational. I'm hoping to film some more insects as they eat to help shed light on the habits of these tiny creatures.

Here are a few more videos of grasshoppers as they eat:





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