In this article, we are going to see the cricket insect types, sounds, and characteristics
Cricket, of the family Gryllidae, are insects, which are spread worldwide and commonly known as man’s melody.
What are crickets?
Crickets are closely related insects to fiddlers, and scientists have identified more than 900+ species of crickets. The most common family called Gryllidae has a worldwide distribution. Crickets are prey for animals, lizards, spiders, and common snack food for people in Southeast Asia.
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What do crickets look like?
Cricket looks a lot similar to a grasshopper. The main difference between a grasshopper and cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae. Crickets have cylindrical bodies, round heads, long antennae, and strong hind legs, with particularly long thighs. Crickets can maximum grow up to two centimeters.
What are the Types of Crickets?
Ground crickets (the subfamily Nemobiinae, or sometimes Gryllidae), about 12 mm long, are commonly found on pastures and in forest areas. His song is a series of soft high trills. Striped ground cricket (Nemobius vittatus) has three dark stripes on its stomach.
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Tree crickets (subfamily Oecanthinae) are white or green in color and have transparent wings. Although wood crickets are good for humans because they feed on aphids, the female damages the twigs while laying eggs. The song of most tree crickets is a long trill. Snow tree cricket (Oecanthus fultoni) is commonly known as thermometer cricket because the approximate temperature (Fahrenheit) can be estimated by counting the number of chirps in 15 seconds and adding up to 40. The crickets that inhabit trees and shrubs often sing at night, while crickets living in the grass sing day and night.
Cricket-loving ants (subfamily Myrmecophilinae) are tiny (3 to 5 mm), wingless and humpbacked. They live in anthills. Flightless bush crickets (subfamily Mogoplistinae) are usually found in shrubs or under debris in tropical sandy areas near the water. These are thin crickets, from 5 to 13 mm long, without wings or with small wings, covered with translucent scales that are easy to rub. Crickets with a sword or winged shrub (Trigonidiinae subfamily) are 4 to 9 mm long, brown and have a xiphoid ovipositor. They are characteristically found in bushes near the pond.
Field cricket (genus Gryllus) and home cricket (Acheta, formerly Gryllus, domesticus) of the subfamily Gryllinae are large and black or brown in color and often dig shallow burrows. They can feed on plants, animals, clothes, and each other. Field cricket (also called black cricket) is common in fields and yards and sometimes enters buildings. Home cricket brought to North America from Europe has a light head with dark stripes and can be found in buildings and piles of garbage. Widespread, domestic and field crickets are sung day and night. They are used as bait for fish in some countries, as well as in biological laboratories. Gryllus is often mentioned in poetry and prose.
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Are crickets harmful to plants?
Most species of cricket is considered as a garden pest. Crickets will growl on young plants or flowers, but usually, their damage is minor compared to other insect species. They only become truly destructive if there is a population outbreak.
What do crickets eat?
Crickets are omnivores; they eat both plant and animal matter.
Why do crickets chirp(sound)?
Male crickets make musical twittering sounds, rubbing a scraper located on one of the front wings, along a row of about 50 to 250 teeth on the opposite wing. The frequency of twittering depends on the number of teeth affected per second and ranges from 1,500 cycles per second in the largest cricket species to almost 10,000 cycles per second in the smallest. The most common cricket songs are produced to attract the female; a mating or nuptial song prompting the female to copulate. Both male and female crickets have very sensitive organs in their front legs for sound. There is a direct correlation between the speed of twitter in cricket and temperature, and the speed increases with temperature
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What is the life cycle of cricket?
Most female crickets insert eggs into the ground or into the stems of plants with their long, thin oviposition, sometimes causing serious damage to plants. In the northern latitudes, most crickets mature and lay eggs in the fall. Nymphs are born in spring and become adults after 6-12 molts; adults usually live between 6 and 8 weeks.
Crickets play an important role in myths and superstitions. Her presence is equated with luck and intelligence; It is believed that cricket damage can lead to unhappiness. In East Asia, male crickets are kept in cages for their songs, and fighting crickets has been a favorite sport in China for hundreds of years.
Insects called crickets but not part of the Gryllidae cricket family include camel cricket, Jerusalem cricket, mole, and dwarf sand cricket.
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