Tiny giant

I photographed this tiny grasshopper, as it chomped away at a basil leaf in our garden. It was barely 10 mm long. My searches told me that it was Valanga irregularis, commonly called the Giant Grasshopper, which grows to 90 mm long. After more searching, I learned that it goes through many stages of nymph or 'instar' development, and in the early stages it looks like this. I'm feeling my ignorance of basic biology.