Grasshopper systematics: Past, present and future

Abstract

For the past 250 y, tremendous advances have been made in the field of grasshopper systematics. There have been several breakthroughs that have pushed the field forward, and behind these breakthroughs were numerous visionary taxonomists. This article is a celebration of those taxonomists and their achievements. In this review, I provide a general overview of the field and describe major advances that have shaped our understanding of grasshopper systematics. Specifically, I review the pattern of species description in Acridomorpha (Orthoptera: Caelifera) since Linnaeus, and highlight the achievements of important taxonomists. Finally, I end with some of the problems that we grasshopper taxonomists are facing today and challenge the field as a whole to move forward.