mormon cricket

noun

large dark wingless cricket-like katydid of arid parts of western United States

• Syn: ↑Anabrus simplex

• Hypernyms: ↑katydid

• Member Holonyms: ↑Anabrus, ↑genus Anabrus

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noun

Usage: usually capitalized M

: a large dark wingless katydid (Anabrus simplex) that resembles a cricket and is found in the arid parts of western United States where it occasionally occurs in great numbers and damages crop plants

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a flightless, long-horned grasshopper, Anabrus simplex, of the western U.S., that is destructive to range grasses and cultivated crops.

[1895-1900; so named because found where the Mormons settled]

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mormon cricket or Mormon cricket,

a type of grasshopper (rather than a true cricket), dark-brown to black, two inches long, and highly destructive to all crops. It is native to the western United States. »

Hoppers and Mormon crickets chewed up $37 million of…crops (Wall Street Journal).