| Locustopsidae Temporal range: | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Clade: | Pancrustacea |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Orthoptera |
| Suborder: | Caelifera |
| Infraorder: | Acrididea |
| Superfamily: | †Locustopsoidea |
| Family: | †Locustopsidae Handlirsch, 1906 |
Locustopsidae is an extinct family of orthopterans known from the Mesozoic. They represent some of the oldest members of the suborder Caelifera.17 Members of the family closely resemble living grasshoppers of the superfamily Acridoidea in the shape of the body and wing venation. It is one of two families consistently placed in the superfamily Locustopsoidea, alongside the Triassic family Locustavidae, suggested to be united by characters of the wing, including "three-branched MA [M] and the branched MP+CuA [CuA+CuPaα] of the tegmina, as well as the branched MA of the hind wings". Locusopsoids have been suggested as some of the most basal members of Caelifera.323-345,539 Locustopsoidea has been proposed as the ancestral stock from which modern Tetrigoidea, Eumastacoidea, and Acridoidea arose.
There are about 17 genera and more than 60 described species in Locustopsidae.
