noun
large dark wingless cricket-like katydid of arid parts of western United States
• Syn: ↑Anabrus simplex
• Hypernyms: ↑katydid
• Member Holonyms: ↑Anabrus, ↑genus Anabrus
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nounUsage: usually capitalized M
: a large dark wingless katydid (Anabrus simplex) that resembles a cricket and is found in the arid parts of western United States where it occasionally occurs in great numbers and damages crop plants
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a flightless, long-horned grasshopper, Anabrus simplex, of the western U.S., that is destructive to range grasses and cultivated crops.
[1895-1900; so named because found where the Mormons settled]
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mormon cricket or Mormon cricket,
a type of grasshopper (rather than a true cricket), dark-brown to black, two inches long, and highly destructive to all crops. It is native to the western United States. »
Hoppers and Mormon crickets chewed up $37 million of…crops (Wall Street Journal).
Useful english dictionary. 2012.