What type of insect did John the Baptist eat in the desert?

John the Baptist ate locusts in the desert, according to the New Testament accounts of his wilderness life.

Matthew 3:4 and Mark 1:6 describe John as wearing camel-hair clothing, with a leather belt, and eating locusts and wild honey. The diet emphasizes his austere life away from settled society and his prophetic role before Jesus.

Locusts are insects in the grasshopper family, which explains a common quiz mix-up. In everyday English, “grasshopper” can describe similar insects, but the biblical wording is specifically “locusts.” Some later religious interpretations proposed that the word might mean carob pods or honey cakes, but the standard canonical Gospel reading is locusts.

Locusts were also a realistic food in parts of the ancient Near East. They could be gathered in large numbers, dried or roasted, and eaten as a source of protein. The passage pairs them with wild honey, another food associated with the wilderness.