What Is The Difference Between A Grasshopper And A Locust

Every locust is a short horned grasshopper.

Main differences between locust and grasshopper. Grasshoppers may or may not migrate but locusts migrate always. A locust has the ability to fly and hop. A locust belongs to the suborder caelifera whereas a grasshopper belongs to the suborder acrididae locusts have a single family while grasshoppers have around 28 families.

The body of locusts is smaller than that of grasshoppers. Both also differ in their behavior. In locusts the wings become longer and stronger to allow for long distance flights. However every grasshopper is not a locust.

The main difference between locust and grasshopper is that locusts are grasshoppers which advance gregarious characteristics in the appropriate environmental conditions forming an established group whereas grasshoppers are ground lodging insects which go over a phase of incomplete metamorphosis before emerging into the adult stage. Locusts cannot breed but grasshoppers do breed. Locusts occur in millions while grasshoppers do not necessarily occur in very high populations.