Unlabeled Grasshopper Diagram – Printable With Answer Key

All 17 parts on the diagram

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The grasshopper 12

Head The front section. It holds the eyes, antennae and mouth.
Antennae A pair of feelers. A grasshopper's are shorter than its body.
Compound eye One of two large eyes, one on each side of the head.
Thorax The middle section. The six legs and the wings join it.
Abdomen The long rear section of the body, in segments.
Legs Six in all. The front four are shorter than the jumping pair.
Forewings (tegmina) Narrow, leathery front wings. They cover the folded hind wings.
Pronotum A shield over the front of the thorax, like a saddle.
Tympanum (eardrum) The ear: a membrane on the abdomen's first segment.
Hind femur The thick upper part of the hind leg, enlarged for jumping.
Hind tibia The long, thin lower part of the hind leg.
Ovipositor Short, pointed plates on a female, for laying eggs in the ground.

The mouthparts 5

Labrum (upper lip) A broad flap that serves as the front lip.
Mandibles (jaws) A pair of jaws. They work from side to side.
Labium (lower lip) The lower lip. It closes the mouth from behind.
Maxillary palps The longer pair of feelers. They touch and taste food.
Labial palps The shorter pair of feelers, on the lower lip.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30, a name kept only where two of these use it: (1) North Carolina State University, ENT 425 General Entomology, Orthoptera, https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/order-orthoptera/ (antennae; pronotum shield like, covering much of the thorax; front wings narrow and leathery, the tegmina, folded back over the abdomen; hind femur enlarged for jumping; the hearing organs on the sides of abdominal segment one in grasshoppers), with its page on mouthparts, https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/bug-bytes/head/mouthparts/ (the grasshopper's labrum as a front lip, mandibles working from side to side, the labium as a back lip, maxillary palps and labial palps); (2) University of Wyoming, Field Guide to Common Western Grasshoppers (R. E. Pfadt), https://www.uwyo.edu/entomology/grasshoppers/field-guide/index.html (three body regions: head, thorax, abdomen; three pairs of legs; short antennae; compound eyes; pronotum, the leathery forewings called tegmina, the hind femur and tibiae, the tympanum on each side of abdominal segment one, the short ovipositor or egg-layer, the maxillary and labial palps); (3) Wikipedia, Grasshopper and Insect mouthparts, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grasshopper and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_mouthparts (head, thorax and abdomen; antennae; compound eyes; three pairs of legs, the front legs shorter than the hind legs; tegmina, the tympanal organ, the robust femur and the spined tibia of the hind leg, short ovipositors; labrum, mandibles, labium, the two pairs of palps); (4) J. H. Comstock, A Manual for the Study of Insects, https://archive.org/details/rnanualforstudyof00coms_0 (the mouth-parts of the red-legged locust: the labrum or upper lip, the mandibles, the labium or under lip, maxillary and labial palpi; the short ovipositor of four plates, used for digging; the ear on the first segment of the abdomen). Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; no photograph or plate followed. Licence: own work

How it works

This unlabeled grasshopper diagram is two drawings on one sheet: the whole insect above, head to the left, and its face below. Seventeen lines lead off them, twelve from the body and five from the mouthparts, one to each part.

Read the full guide

Grasshopper diagram, no labels: the seventeen names

Side view, in the order of the numbered copy: head, antennae, compound eye, thorax, abdomen, legs, forewings (tegmina), pronotum, tympanum, hind femur, hind tibia, ovipositor. Front view of the head: labrum, mandibles, labium, maxillary palps, labial palps.

Three pairs that get swapped on the unlabeled diagram

The pronotum is the saddle-shaped shield just behind the head; the thorax is the side of the body that shows behind it. On the jumping leg the femur is the thick upper part and the tibia the thin, spiny lower part. The labrum is the front lip, the broad flap under the face; the labium is the back lip, below the jaws.

For a younger class, ask for the first seven names only, head to forewings.
Of the two pairs of palps, the maxillary pair is the longer, outer one; the labial pair is the short one on the labium.
The grasshopper drawn is a female, so the short ovipositor shows at the tip of the abdomen.

Questions and answers

What are the three main body parts of a grasshopper?

The head, the thorax and the abdomen. On the side view the head is at the left, the thorax is the middle section that the legs and wings join, and the abdomen is the long ringed section behind it.

What is the pronotum of a grasshopper?

A shield-like plate that covers much of the thorax. On the sheet its line comes down between the lines for the eye and the thorax.

What are the tegmina of a grasshopper?

The forewings. They are narrow and leathery, and they fold back over the abdomen to cover the large, thin hind wings. Only the tegmina show on the sheet, so one line names them.

How many legs does a grasshopper have?

Six, in three pairs. The sheet has one line for the legs, drawn to a front leg, and two more on the large hind leg: one for its femur and one for its tibia.

Does the unlabeled grasshopper diagram have an answer key?

Yes: the same two drawings with a name at the end of each line. The key writes the short names: Forewings for the tegmina, Tympanum for the eardrum, Labrum and Labium for the two lips.