Mormon cricket

English

Etymology

Of Mormon +‎ cricket, attested from the late 19th century.

Noun

Mormon cricket (plural Mormon crickets)

1. A large dark wingless katydid, Anabrus simplex, that resembles a cricket and is found in the arid parts of the western U.S. where it is occasionally an abundant pest of crops.
   • 1894, Lawrence Bruner, A Preliminary Introduction to the Study of Entomology, →OCLC, page 41:

     In the figure 55 is shown a “wingless cricket,” of the subfamily Decticinœ of authors. This group contains many very queer looking creatures, and also some that occasionally increase in such numbers as to become pests. Our large “Mormon cricket,” the one shown in the illustration, is an example of the latter kind.

   • 1904, C.P. Gillette, “Report of the Entomologist”, in Annual Report of the State Board of Agriculture and the State Agricultural College, Fort Collins, Colorado, page 92:

     Mountain crickets. (Anabrus simplex) —This large, black, wingless grasshopper, commonly called “Mormon Cricket,” “Idaho Cricket,” and “Mountain Cricket,” has been on the increase for some years past in Routt county, and the past year was a serious and formidable pest in portions of that country where cultivated crops are grown.