【80mm】Green Form Praying Mantis Insect Specimen, Orthoptera

Scientific Name: Acrida cinerea

This is the largest grasshopper species found in Japan, characterized by its head that tapers upwards.

When you enter their habitat, adult males will fly while making a kichi kichi kichi sound. This sound is produced by striking their forewings and hindwings together during flight. Females rarely fly, but they may occasionally take flight during hot daytime temperatures. Larvae do not fly and escape by hopping with their hind legs.

According to popular belief, it is said that this grasshopper appears around the Obon (Festival of the Dead) season in August, and its name comes from its resemblance to the spirit boats used for sending off ancestral spirits.

Furthermore, the sexual dimorphism between males and females is so significant that they appear so different they could have different names. Thus, it is called shojo-batta (霄壤蝗虫), derived from sho-jo (霄壤), meaning as different as heaven and earth.
Because males make a kichi kichi kichi... sound when flying, they are also called kichi-kichi batta. On the other hand, females are easier to catch, and when held with their hind legs together, they shake their bodies vertically, giving them the alternative names kometsuki-batta (rice-pounding grasshopper) or hataori-batta (loom-weaving grasshopper).