The Japanese grasshopper (Oxya japonica), or the rice grasshopper, is a short-horned grasshopper (Acrididae) is a herbivorous insect that primarily feeds on grasses and can eat roses. While their primary food sources are grasses and crops like rice, they are opportunistic herbivores. Rice grasshoppers are aggressive feeders that are primarily found in rice (paddy) crop fields, wetlands, and grasslands. However, when their main food sources are destroyed or become unavailable, these pests will actively migrate to surrounding vegetation, including ornamental gardens. Due to their large chewing mouthparts, they don’t just create small holes in plants. Instead, they leave large, ragged edges along the sides of leaves, bite straight through the centers of new shoots (causing them to collapse), and nibble on developing rose buds, ruining the petals before they can bloom. Here is a rice grasshopper eating a rose flower at Tehatta, West Bengal; India, on February 27, 2026
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