I believe the "carapace" protects only the thorax of the grasshopper above the legs.

 

If true is it also true that the abdomen is protected with an exoskeleton? Is this exoskeleton on both dorsal and ventral sides?

 

 

The exoskeleton covers the entire body of insects. The pronotum is just a thickened area of exoskeleton covering part of the thorax.

The exoskeleton covers the entire body of insects. The pronotum is just a thickened area of exoskeleton covering part of the thorax.

 

Thank you very much.

 

This leads to two more questions. Is this carapace/ pronotum believe to help protect it from predation by birds? Is there much variation in the thickness of the exoskeleton vis a vis dorsal and ventral aspects?

 

The root question is; Could the pronotum ever be considered part of a dorsal exoskeleton rather than just an adjunct to the entire exoskeleton? I understand that it is not classified as such now.

 

I'm trying to understand a very ancient reference to the insect which refers to the "dorsal carapace" (if the translation is good) but seems to imply the shape of the abdominal exoskeleton. It certainly seems that if there is a single carapace then calling it the "dorsal carapace" is at the least redundant. There's no reason to believe their classification system would be similar to ours.

 

Any further help would be very appreciated as well.

I might add that the translator in this case had little knowledge of biology or anatomy.