Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States

Good information for my drawings!

As a casual hobby naturalist, the thing that is hard to get used to with insects and insect field guides is that they are just so diverse. Any given guide, unless very regionally or family specific, can really only touch on what is out there. So even this guide, which only addresses 1 of the 30 orders of insects, has to focus on the common species plus illustrative members of other genera. I'm a birder, so my initial reaction is that this is like picking up a bird field guide and finding it only has American Robin as an example of "Thrushes".Here is a case in point: we have Camel Crickets in our basement. So I thought "ah, I'll use this book to identify what kind of Camel Cricket". But there is only one Camel Cricket species described in detail in the book (not mine), and the family discussion notes that there are 150 species in 21 genera in the US and Canada. So just that one question could take up a whole field guide of its own.Once your expectations are adjusted, the book does a great job of providing info on natural history, key features used to identify families/genera/species, and taxonomic navigation charts to help you quickly get to right place in the guide. That said, you need to become familiar enough with the differentiating features to be able to use this as a "field" guide. Like anything, it takes a little work to be able to efficiently use and enjoy this guide.

Grasshoppers, crickets and kadydids are well-known, but often overlooked by amateur naturalists because of the apparent lack of good guides. Actually Helfer wrote a very good guide to the orthopteroid orders many years ago, which is still available from Dover, but the taxonomy is a bit out of date.John Capinera et al., have now produced a beautiful guide a selection of the U. S. species to the true Orthoptera (minus walkingsticks, mantids, and cockroaches) that will serve as an good introduction. I am surprised at some of their choices, but then one never totally agrees with the authors of books containing selected species descriptions. Those who would like more can get Helfer, which is still very useful, if dated, and is much more complete (it not only includes most of the known grasshopper, katydid, and cricket species, but also the other orders formally placed in the Orthoptera, and the termites and earwigs as a bonus!). However the color illustrations in "Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States" are reasonably accurate and beautiful. Why not get both books (the Helfer book is still available for less than $15.00) if you really want to identify your fauna of grasshoppers and their relatives?I recommend this book to anyone interested in the fauna beyond their back door. I hope, however, that a revised and updated version of something like Helfer's book will eventually be published.

Have you tried to identify a grasshopper or cricket with one of those field guides that covers all insects? Here is the book that makes it possible to identify that orthopteran that you just can't find in the other guides. The pictorial keys and the full color plates are invaluable to amateurs and the experienced collectors alike. The distribution maps, descriptions and illustrations of distinguishing characteristics help you to confirm or refute your identification. This book is in such high demand by my students that I will certainly be buying more copies.

A great addition to my entomology identification library. I use it mostly when I need to learn a little more than just taxonomic information for Western genera.

An informative guide and the only one to cover its subject that I'm aware of. However, it is aimed at those who actually collect orthopterans and/or record their songs. It is of some, but limited use for those who want to identify an insect from a photo alone; in many cases you will be stuck at genus level or higher if all you have is a photo. Sometimes the guide does not even attempt to give field marks to distinguish a species from a photo, or even opine on whether it is possible.The plates are pretty good quality and show each insect in the same pose for easy comparison, but the addition of photos, with their greater accuracy, would be an improvement.

I bought this mainly as a field guide for identifying crickets species and I was very disappointed. The section on crickets only takes up a little over 1/10th of the entire book! And very few plates. What I find odd is that House Crickets and Tropical House Crickets are given their own subheadings and they are NOT native to North America! (They are escapees from the feeder cricket industry). Yet to find any information on Spring and Fall field crickets, which are native to North America, you have to look under Southeastern Field Crickets, where it eventually covers similar species. This book will point you in the right direction but that's about it.

Good value and quality.

分布や形態・生態は解りやすく整理されて簡潔に記載されてます。図版と解説が少し離れているのが使いづらいですが、文章が解説そのものが秀逸なのでよしとしましょう。ただ、図版がイマイチ現物と乖離してます。写実的・躍動的ではありますが、何かこう、現物よりもオドロオドロしく描かれていて、特に色彩にクセがあります。