New Caledonia is a hyperdiverse biodiversity hotspot with nearly 90% of its fauna being endemic. Pygmy grasshoppers (Tetrigidae Rambur, 1838) are an ancient but underresearched group, especially in New Caledonia where only seven species were known until now, most described from very few specimens. Having examined a large collection of previously unpublished material, we describe eight new genera and 12 new species from New Caledonia: Dystopia Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., Hyperyboella adoptata Kasalo & Skejo, n. sp., H. manautei Kasalo & Skejo, n. sp., Kanakacris Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., Nophtha proditor Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Notredamia jadranka Kasalo & Skejo, n. sp., Spertor solus Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Poseidontettix neptunus Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Xerapelpa franjevici Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., X. monteithi Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Yangtettix burwelli Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Yangtettix grimbacheri Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., Yintettix lingshengzhai Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp., and Yintettix tumbrincki Kasalo & Skejo, n. gen., n. sp. We also describe four new tribes and redefine many existing ones, some to classify the newly discovered fauna and some to provide a preliminary suprageneric classification of the subfamily Batrachideinae Bolívar, 1887. The tetrigid fauna of New Caledonia is complex, likely having resulted from at least five independent colonizations from New Guinea and Australia. Some species display unusually high morphological variability and unclear biogeographic patterns, meaning that future research is likely to identify more new taxa.