The
Acrididae are the predominant family of
grasshoppers, comprising some 10,000 of the 11,000 species of the entire suborder
Caelifera. The Acrididae are best known because all
locusts (swarming grasshoppers) are of the Acrididae. The subfamily
Oedipodinae is sometimes classified as a distinct family Oedipodidae in the superfamily
Acridoidea. Acrididae grasshoppers are characterized by relatively short and stout antennae, and tympana on the side of the first abdominal segment.