Orthopteran Zoology: How to Keep Grasshoppers, Crickets, and Katydids

Brightly iridescent grasshoppers, feeder crickets, thorny predatory katydids, tattered leaf katydids, spidery cave crickets, and rotund king crickets are just some of the fantastic members of the Order Orthoptera. Grasshoppers and their allies include many of the largest and most flamboyant insects, favored by entomologists and insect lovers around the world. They play heavily in dried insect collections, zoological insect displays, and the feeder insect trade. Humans began keeping crickets for their beautiful songs eight centuries before canaries.

Orthopteran Zoology is the first and only book dedicated to discovery and mastery of the husbandry requirements needed to successfully maintain these intriguing creatures in artificial habitats over successive generations. Those who read this text will acquire a greater appreciation and understanding of this spectacular order of insects. Beginning enthusiasts and experts alike will enjoy this journey through the living biology and requirements of North American natives, incredible exotics kept in zoos across the globe, Asian and African singing crickets, and kaleidoscopic exotics maintained in European collections.

Orin McMonigle is the author of The Ultimate Guide to Breeding Beetles, Isopod Zoology, Centipedes in Captivity, and many more invertebrate husbandry guides.