A Cloud of Grasshoppers cartoon showing an enormous green cloud of grasshoppers in the sky while two people watch and a grasshopper wearing a safety vest directs the swarm with illuminated batons.

A Cloud of Grasshoppers

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A Cloud of Grasshoppers cartoon showing an enormous green cloud of grasshoppers in the sky while two people watch and a grasshopper wearing a safety vest directs the swarm with illuminated batons.
A group of grasshoppers is most often called a cloud, describing how they darken the sky in flight.

What Does “A Cloud of Grasshoppers” Mean?

“Cloud” is the term most commonly used for a large group of grasshoppers, describing the striking visual effect when a big enough number lift off together, darkening the sky the way an actual cloud would. It’s a plainly descriptive term rather than a coined historical one, built around what the group looks like rather than any behavioral quirk or symbolic association.

The term takes on extra weight in the context of locust outbreaks, when certain grasshopper species transform into their gregarious, swarming phase — historic accounts of devastating locust plagues frequently describe the swarm literally as a cloud blotting out the sun.

Example: “A cloud of grasshoppers rose off the field the moment the mower started up.”

Related: Collective Nouns for Insects · What Is a Group of Grasshoppers Called? · A Plague of Grasshoppers · What Animals Form a Cloud?

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