MY FAVORITE CRICKETS

     Field, spotted camel, mole and snowy tree crickets are my favorite crickets in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They help liven fields, meadows, roadsides and suburban areas, all human-made habitats, with their presence and lively, rythmic chirping.  But they are seldom seen because they are hidden away, and camouflaged.  All these crickets mostly eat insect eggs and vegetation.  And all are built much like their larger cousins, the grasshoppers.  These crickets are an inch to an inch and a half long.  And I think they are all attractive.

      Field crickets are dark and mostly live under mats of dead vegetation on the ground under field and roadside plants.  The chirping of males is companionable and enjoyable as I walk along country roads.  And occasionally I see one jumping across a rural road.  

     Camel crickets are brown all over, with yellowish spots and streaks, and hump-backed, hence their name.  Their humped backs are unique among local crickets.

     Camel crickets live in dark, damp places in woods, including under rocks, fallen logs, carpets of fallen, dead leaves, and trash cans in wooded parks.  They are hardly ever noticed because of their hiding and nocturnal habits.  And they make no sounds.

     Dark brown all over, mole crickets live in burrows they dig themselves in loose, moist soil in pastures.  This species is well adapted to its role in life.  They have large, shovel-like front legs for digging.  And their back legs are small; they can't jump in tunnels.  Males chirp loudly from their burrows during September and October.  And females lay their eggs in their underground retreats. 

     I hear male snowy tree crickets' measured chirping among shrubbery in suburbs from late July, into autumn.  Both genders of this species are light-green, which camouflages them among green foliage.  

     Snowy tree crickets are also called temperature crickets for good reason.  We can closely determine the outdoor air temperature by counting the number of chips from a male snowy tree cricket in 13 seconds and add 40 to that number of chirps.  All insects are cold-blooded and cold temperatures slow their metabolism and their activities.

     Several kinds of local creatures consume many crickets of all kinds, including spiders, certain wasps, toads and frogs, small snakes and box turtles, striped skunks, a variety of birds and other creatures.  But surviving female crickets make up for losses by laying many eggs in the protective ground in fall.  They young hatch the next spring and resemble their parents, but smaller. 

     Males of most cricket species produce trills, chants or chirps that bring the genders together for mating.  A scraper on one front wing of a male rapidly slides over the teeth of the other front wing to make those mechanical sounds.  

     Crickets are interesting, delightful little critters that liven fields and suburbs with their pleasant stridulations during summer and fall.  And they figure heavily in several food chains of who eats whom.                              

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