The Caelifera are a suborder of orthopteran insects. They include the grasshoppers and grasshopper-like insects, as well as other superfamilies classified with them: the ground-hoppers (Tetrigoidea) and pygmy mole crickets (Tridactyloidea). The latter should not be confused with the mole crickets (Gryllotalpidae), which belong to the other Orthopteran sub-order Ensifera.
Image: Pygmy mole cricket (8071068977) cropped
Image: Melanoplus femurrubrum 20070903
Fossil grasshoppers at the Royal Ontario Museum
Orthoptera is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grasshoppers, locusts, and close relatives; and Ensifera – crickets and close relatives.
Orthoptera
Garden locust (Acanthacris ruficornis), Ghana, family Acrididae
Variegated grasshopper (Zonocerus variegatus), Ghana, family Pyrgomorphidae
Proscopiidae gen. sp. from the Andes of Peru