Ensifera facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Ensifera Temporal range: Carboniferous – Recent
Katydid
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Ensifera
Superfamilies and families
see text

Ensifera is a suborder of the order Orthoptera. It includes the insects commonly known as crickets, katydids and bush crickets. "Ensifer" means "sword bearer" in Latin, and refers to the long and blade-like ovipositor of the females.

Classification

• Superfamily Grylloidea
  • Gryllidae - true crickets
  • Gryllotalpidae - mole crickets
  • Mogoplistidae
  • Myrmecophilidae - ant crickets
• Superfamily Hagloidea
  • Prophalangopsidae
• Superfamily Rhaphidophoroidea
  • Rhaphidophoridae - camel crickets, cave crickets, cave wetas
• Superfamily Schizodactyloidea
  • Schizodactylidae - dune crickets
• Superfamily Stenopelmatoidea
  • Anostostomatidae - wetas, king crickets
  • Cooloolidae
  • Gryllacrididae - leaf-rolling crickets
  • Stenopelmatidae - Jerusalem crickets
• Superfamily Tettigonioidea
  • Tettigoniidae - katydids or bush crickets, the long-horned grasshoppers

Images for kids

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  A mole cricket, showing the front legs specialised for digging

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  A cave cricket, showing the long hind legs and antennae

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  A Cooloola monster, a subterranean family from Queensland, Australia

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  A splay-footed cricket from South India

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  Prophalangopsidae: Jurassic fossil Pycnophlebia speciosa

See also

In Spanish: Ensifera (suborden) para niños