Ann Lanning, age 13, of Fairview,

Is the katydid of the grasshopper family?

The grasshoppers and the katydids, the crickets and the mantids all belong in the insect order Orthoptera. The insects of each order may be quite different from each other in some respects, but they have certain important features in common. The members of this order are all land dwellers with special mouth parts for chewing tough food. They all hatch from eggs into miniature, wingless copies of their parents and develop into large sizes by molting their skins. The wings appear after the final molt.

The term orthoptera means straight wings, though a few members of this order have no wings at all. Most of them, however, have a front pair of stiff, leathery wings. Tucked under the sturdy front wings are the gauzy hind wings, folded up like a pair of fairy fans.