A wired black grasshopper???
January 1, 2010
i sent you guys this awhile ago, not sure if it went though,or if you just habvnt gotten around to identifiying it ot not, but yea outside my door one day in october i found this bug, captured it then set ti free later that evening,i wus confused about what kind of bug /insect it would be.?
i sent it in last time as ” Fred ”
British colubia ,canada
Field Cricket
Dear i sent it in last time as “Fred”
This is a common Field Cricket. In many cultures it is considered good luck to have a Cricket in the home.
Thank you very much i wus really curious about what kind of bug it wus, and your site askes “are we experts yet ?”
i would deffinetly say so, i have been on you site quite a few times and i think it is amazing all the diffirent insects!!
have a great day/night, and a good new year!
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Posted 02 January 2010
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Bug jumps sideways and is very aggresive
December 13, 2009
Saw this bug in our garage in Boonville Mo. We have seen three of them in the last month. They look like a crossbrede between a grasshopper and a spider and are very aggressive it tried to attack my wife
John Schaefer
Boonville, Mo.
Camel Cricket
Dear John,
Though it looks frightening, the Camel Cricket is perfectly harmless. Camel Crickets are also called Cave Crickets, and they like damp, dark places like basements where they will feed on a variety of things, including cloth and newspaper.
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Posted 16 December 2009
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What the hell is this?
December 2, 2009
I took this picture in March of 2008 when I was in Iraq and this thing was just plain nasty. It’s about the size of my thumb (length and width). That is in fact rat droppings around it and it’s obviously somewhat of a bottomfeeder. Do you guys know what this thing is?
Ryan Luddy
Haditha Dam, Iraq
Mole Cricket
Hi Ryan,
Though your photo is from Iraq, it is worth noting that we get submissions of Mole Crickets from around the world.
Update
After being severely chastised by one of our readers in a comment, we have decided to try to make things right. Mole Crickets are subterranean diggers that can also fly. They eat plant roots, and they do not feed on rat droppings since they are not scavengers.
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Posted 03 December 2009
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Wierd Bug in eastern NC
November 19, 2009
I am trying to figure out what this is. I have only seen one other like it. Up close, it looks like it has a lobsters head, mole paws and the features of a grasshopper. Soo strange. What is it and what does it do/eat?
Dawn
Eastern NC
Mole Cricket
Hi Dawn,
This is a Mole Cricket, so your description of the mole paws is quite accurate. Additionally, Mole Crickets are in the same insect order as Grasshoppers, and since they are both Orthopterans, that observation was also quite keen. Mole Crickets are subterranean diggers.
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Posted 20 November 2009
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Is this bug friend or foe?
6:08 AM
October 30, 2009
I foud this on my house and did not want to kill a beneficial insect. It is approx 2 inches long.
M Brienza
Wyckoff, NJ 07481
please disregard previous message
6:19 AM
a form has been submitted on October 30, 2009
Hello Bugman,
In my haste to identify the insect i just submitted, I dug a lit deeper into your site (which is excellent by the way) and found that I have a two-spotted tree cricket.
Don’t want to waste your valuable time!
Thanks & keep up the good work!
M Brienza
Wyckoff, NJ 07481
Two Spotted Tree Cricket
Dear M,
WE are quite impressed that you managed to identify your Two Spotted Tree Cricket, Neoxabea bipunctata, in 11 minutes and write back to inform us. We love Tree Crickets and enjoy hearing their musical serenades at night. Readers who want more information may find it on BugGuide.
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Posted 30 October 2009
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Camel Cricket–alive and kicking!
October 26, 2009
Hi WTB–
My cat was harassing this cool bug as it tried to hide out under our baseboard radiator. (We had a Western Conifer Seed Bug in the same area the other day–I think they come in through the track of the sliding door nearby.) At first I thought it was a regular cricket. When I went to rescue it, I found that it something else entirely. I caught it under a glass, snapped a few pictures, and then tossed it back outside into the cool and rainy evening.
The more I looked at this bug, the cooler it seemed to be. I guess it’s a female based on those three huge prongs on her back end. Such a great and complex face! So many little barbs and stickers! Amazing three-toed feet! She was pretty cooperative with the photo session–she mostly held still, except she groomed her long antennae using her paddle-like facial appendages (are those called palps?).
JJR
Setauket, NY (North Shore of Long Island)
Camel Cricket
Dear JJR,
Since we recently posted an image of dead Camel Crickets caught in a sticky trap, your photo is much more welcomed. We believe the mouthpart to which you refer is the maxillary palpus or feeler. Seems she is covered in hair and dust and needs to do a bit of grooming.
Camel Cricket
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Posted 26 October 2009
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Large Cricket Like Bug
October 24, 2009
Here I’ve found a large cricket like bug with really long antennae. The actual body of the bug looks to be about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch in length (not counting the legs or antennae. They seem to gravitate towards mice glue traps. Any help regarding these guys would be greatly appreciated.
Regards
Suffern, NY (NorthEast U.S.)
Camel Crickets caught in glue traps for mice
These are Camel Crickets or Cave Crickets. They need dark, damp locations to live and reproduce. Indoors, they are found in basements where they may eat paper and fabric. Though we don’t normally provide extermination advice, many of our readers ask how to rid their homes of Camel Crickets. Your photo says it all.
Camel Cricket in Glue Trap
Third try for pink/red grasshopper
September 23, 2009
We found this grasshopper inside our WV house in late October– I haven’t found it on your site, or elsewhere, and I think it’s very pretty! Can you help?
Jessica
Morgantown, WV
Two Spotted Tree Cricket
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your persistence. We wish we had the time to answer all of our mail, especially since we realize how very important it is to our readership to have their letter recognized and perhaps even posted online. This appears to be a Smooth Legged Tree Cricket in the genus Neoxabea, the Two Spotted Tree Cricket, Neoxabea bipunctata. According to BugGuide, your specimen is a male which is described as: “The male is a paler color — red tinged head and pronotum, pale pink-tinged wings and pale flesh-toned limbs. The male Neoxabea is the only TC male whose wings wrap down the sides of the body (like those of the female) — Oecanthus species males have paddle-shaped wings that lay atop their body.“ BugGuide also indicates: “Males sing mostly at night: a 10-second trill followed by several seconds of silence, then a trill again. After mating, male hangs downward from foliage, allowing female to hang on beneath and dine on secretions from his thorax (1).”
Two Spotted Tree Cricket
Thank you so much! I’m glad my persistence paid off and didn’t come off as pestering.
We appreciate that you actually sent your information as well as attaching the photos on your subsequent submissions. Often people will just send a followup query with no photos and we cannot take the time to search the mailbox for their original letters.
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Posted 24 September 2009
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Unidintified cricket possibly a hoplosphyrum boreale?
September 23, 2009
I just sent you a couple of pictures and asked you to identify a cricket that wasn’t a field cricket. I poked around online and found a description that fit. I couldn’t find a picture. “females are scaly and wingless” “common scaly cricket”? What do you think?
bugbarb
Chantry Flat, Angeles National Forest, California
Cricket
Unknown cricket species, not a field cricket.
September 23, 2009
I have a healthy family of field crickets which I have raised from eggs laid by a single mother. Occasionally, I put in immature field crickets that I find in my yard. One such cricket has turned out to not be a field cricket. She has not grown at all and has fully developed ovipositor. She is brown, and has some dark horizontal bands. I have had her for over a month and she still doesn’t have wings that I can see. I have never seen this type of cricket before. I live at 2,200 feet elevation in Big Santa Anita Canyon in Angeles National Forest. Our canyon is one of the few places the recent Station Fire hasn’t burned. I find many interesting bugs in my yard because of the location.
Bugbarb
Chantry Flat, Angeles National Forest, California
Cricket
Hi Bugbarb,
Based on two images from Southern California posted to BugGuide, we believe you have properly identified this Cricket as Hoplosphyrum boreale.
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Posted 24 September 2009
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Two mystery bugs
September 21, 2009
Bug #1 – Brown, six legged with wings and looks to be a stinger. About 2 inches long. Found dead on our driveway.
Bug #2 – Brown and white spotted bugs with orange spots almost like a lady bug. Found on our althea red heart hibiscus buds.
Heather Korn
West Tennessee
Mole Cricket
Dear Heather,
We frown on unrelated insects in the same posting as it compromises our archiving process, so we will address Bug #2 separately. We have gotten numerous requests worldwide recently for Mole Cricket identifications. We have responded to some without posting the images and your photo is quite nice, so we have decided it is time to post a new image of a Mole Cricket on our site. Mole Crickets are found underground and some species are capable of flight.
Hi and thanks for the information. I apologize for posting unrelated insects in the same posting and will remember not to do so in the future. Your answers are very helpful and informative, I appreciate it.
Thanks again for your time and have a great day.
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Posted 22 September 2009
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What is this parasite on the cricket?
September 1, 2009
We found a wild cricket with the lump on its side. We were not sure if it was a growth or a parasite. Later I found another one and removed the lump. It appears to have legs and was attatched at only one point. The pictures show one with the parasite attatched. The other shows the underside of the parasite.
David and Deanna Brown
Clark County Indiana, in a garden.
Cricket with Parasite
Hi David and Deanna,
About a year ago, we posted a similar image and surmised that it might be a Tachinid Fly that had parasitized the cricket in question and linked to an online article on Tachinids parasitizing Crickets. Eric Eaton then provided us with this information: “Hi, Daniel: The object protruding from the deceased cricket is indeed a fly puparium (the rigid last larval ’skin’ enclosing a fly pupa). It could certainly be a tachinid fly, but there are also other flies that are parasitic on crickets, especially some members of the flesh fly family (Sarcophagidae). I’d personally be hard-pressed to identify even the adult fly once it emerges, though a dipterist (fly expert) could. Eric“ We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he agrees. The most common cricket parasite written about online is a Horsehair Worm.
Parasite taken from Cricket
Eric Eaton offers a suggestion: Rhopalosomatid Wasps
Daniel:
The cricket parasite is probably not a tachinid. See this:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/71173
Wish I had more time to expand on this, but I don’t at the moment.
Eric
Two-Spotted Tree Cricket
August 13, 2009
i too live in Ohio, near Dayton. just last night, i found a male two-spotted tree cricket on my kitchen blinds. i searched the internet in hopes to identify it, and found my answer here. my cricket had the same body, but was different in color – light all over with red eyes! i don’t see where I can upload a pic to show you, but thanks for the help!
betsy
Tree Cricket
Hi Betsy,
We cannot be certain that this is a Two Spotted Tree Cricket, but it is definitely some species of Tree Cricket.
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Posted 13 August 2009
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