Nsenene
Nsenene is a green bush cricket from Africa with long feelers. In Uganda, people wait all year for it, because it is a favourite crunchy snack. It appears in huge swarms in the rainy seasons.
How fast is it?
Fun facts
Nsenene is its name in Luganda, a language spoken in Uganda.
Big swarms come in the wet seasons, usually around May and November.
In the Buganda kingdom of Uganda it is one of the kingdom's special animal symbols, called totems.
When the swarms arrive, women and children have long gone out to collect them.
In Tanzania, people give these insects to guests as a sign of respect and welcome.
Most asked questions about Nsenene
?Do people eat nsenene?
Yes. In Uganda and nearby countries nsenene are a much-loved seasonal food.
?When do nsenene come?
In the rainy seasons, usually around May and November.
?Is nsenene a grasshopper?
It is a bush cricket, also called a katydid, a close cousin of grasshoppers with long feelers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Ruspolia differens
- Group
- Grasshoppers and crickets
- Family
- Tettigoniidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
- Lives on
- Africa
- Also known as
- Senene
Where the facts come from
- Nsenene (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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