Increases in the number of antennal segments occur during the development of some orthopterans. The German cockroach, Blattella germanica, has been studied in detail in this regard, and it has been shown that a newly hatched nymph has about 24 segments in each antenna. Each of the succeeding nymphal stages (there are usually six in this species) shows an increase in the number of segments until, by the time the adult stage is reached, the average number is 94. The two basal segments do not divide; the third segment, as well as certain other ones, is a growth centre that divides during molting. It is customary for grasshoppers to have 20–30 antennal segments when mature; this is about twice the number present in the first-stage nymph.

The life span of orthopterans depends in part upon whether or not there are long periods during winter or at other times (e.g., a dry season) when the insects are quiescent. Some species habitually spend several months resting during unfavourable periods; such species have one generation per year, and the life span of an individual is approximately one year. The portion of the life span spent as an adult varies, but is likely to be about one or two months. In some species egg maturation is delayed several months after the final molt, and the females do not lay the eggs until they have matured. In other species eggs are not hatched until one or more years after they are laid; therefore, more than one winter or dry season is passed in the egg stage, and a single life cycle can occupy two or more full years. For instance, a walking stick commonly found in the U.S., Diapheromera femorata, often has some eggs that hatch the year following deposition and others that hatch after two winters have been passed amid dead leaves on the ground. There are some orthopterans that develop very slowly, and their life cycles require several years for completion; an example is a North American cockroach (Cryptocercus punctulatus) that inhabits rotting logs, feeds on decaying wood, and attains maturity after six or seven years. Grylloblattids live for five to seven years. The time required for domestic cockroaches to reach maturity varies with species and environmental conditions. The German cockroach completes nymphal growth in about 95 days, but the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) needs about 225 days. Similarly, adults live from a month or two to several years, depending on conditions and species.

General features

Typically each female has paired ovaries consisting of tubes in which eggs develop, moving posteriorly into a single oviduct as they “ripen.” The oviduct leads to a vagina and then to the exterior where there is either a simple or specialized ovipositor consisting of paired appendages called ovipositor valves. Attached to the oviduct or vagina is a sac (called the spermatheca) for storage of male sperm; as eggs move down the oviduct, they are fertilized by the sperm. The typical male contains paired testes that produce vast numbers of slender active sperm; these are stored in enlargements of the tubes leading posteriorly from the testes. Accessory gland secretions provide not only the medium for carrying the sperm but also a material that solidifies to form a thin-walled sac, or reservoir, containing some sperm and fluid. This reservoir, called the spermatophore, is almost universally found among orthopterans.

Grasshopper spermatophores consist of a bladderlike reservoir and a spermatophore tube. The spermatophore is formed during the first two minutes or so of copulation, after which the tube extends from the male genital organs to the spermathecal duct of the female. The spermathecal duct opens at the base of the ovipositor valves. Sperm pass to the female during copulation; after sperm transfer is complete, parts of the spermatophore may remain attached to both male and female. In some orthopterans, particularly crickets and katydids, the entire spermatophore is attached to the female.

Courtship behaviour

All orthopteran groups have species that show definite courtship behavior prior to actual mating. Male cockroaches are attracted particularly by females that are virgin and in a receptive condition. Such females frequently secrete pheromones. Pheromones, chemical substances secreted by certain insects, influence the behaviour of other individuals of the same species. Antennae of males of a domestic roach, Periplaneta americana, have specialized sense organs that detect the odour of female P. americana pheromones; upon detection of the odour, the male initiates searching movements, first with the antennae, then with the palpi. Finally, the male, with folded wings raised and fluttering, actively searches out the female. If the female is still receptive when he finds her, the male protrudes his posterior abdominal segments, pushes under the end of the female, and grasps the terminal ventral segments of the female with his genital hooks; then he expels the spermatophore, which becomes attached to the spermathecal opening of the female. The entire process lasts up to an hour.

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Among the grasshoppers, species with coloured hind wings and the habit of making sounds during flight use hovering and other special flight patterns to attract the attention of females. Crickets and katydids have the most dramatic courtship displays because “songs” enter into the precopulatory behaviour. Females of some species are receptive only to the specific song of a male of the same species; in others, however, mating calls are not necessary, and a female will mate with a male who is unable to sing because his wings have been removed. Here, as in grasshoppers, a variety of mating positions are assumed.

A striking sequel to mating occurs frequently in mantids when the female eats the male. There is a popular opinion that mantid males always are eaten, but many escape under natural conditions. But in the close confines of a small cage cannibalism of the male is more common.