Crickets, Camel Crickets And Mole Crickets

Category Archives: Crickets, Camel Crickets and Mole Crickets rss

Mole Cricket in Australia

Oversized Earwig
Location: Port Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
October 28, 2011 3:42 am
This scary looking was walking over my floor. At first I thought it was an oversized earwig but then I thought it was unlikely.
When I caught it, the bug tried to squirt this black ink at me which was caught by the plastic container. It is a bit over 40mm from feelers to tail.
Do you know what type of bug would get around Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (and would it be dangerous)?
Signature: Bug Pro

Mole Cricket

Dear Bug Pro,
You had an encounter with a harmless Mole Cricket. The are found in many parts of the world, and we frequently get identification requests from Australia, the Middle East and many parts of North America.

¶ Posted 28 October 2011 § ‡ Comments (1) ° Tagged: WTB? Down Under

Tree Cricket

My little songster
Location: Northern CA
October 22, 2011 3:26 pm
This little guy/gal appears every night on my geranium plant–October–N, CA. Sometimes there are more than one.
Signature: MF

Tree Cricket

Dear MF,
This is some species of Tree Cricket in the genus Oecanthus, and as a group, they are quite vocal. One species, the Snowy Tree Cricket, it also called the Thermometer Cricket because one can calculate the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit by counting the chirps in 13 seconds and then adding 40 according to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin. See BugGuide for more information on Tree Crickets.

I like This

¶ Posted 22 October 2011 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Two Spotted Tree Cricket

Praying Mantis Cousin?
Location: Port Republic, MD
October 11, 2011 6:30 pm
What a great site! You provide an invaluable service to the web community.
Need help identifying a bug. Not sure how to classify this insect; couldn’t find a resemblance on your site.
Thanks again!
Signature: Jimi

Two Spotted Tree Cricket

Hi Jimi,
Thanks for the compliment. Your insect is a Two Spotted Tree Cricket.

¶ Posted 12 October 2011 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Swimming Mole Cricket

New Insect Found
Location: Cooper City, Florida
October 10, 2011 3:48 pm
Need your Expertize for identification of this insect.
I found this bug today in front of the lake, I was on my Deck sitting and just a couple feet away this Insect was swimming in the lake. I asked many people around, nobody seems to know that insect…
Monk
Signature: Your choice

Mole Cricket Swimming

Hi Monk,
Your insect is a Mole Cricket, and we get identification requests from around the world including numerous requests from troops in the Middle East. Your letter has us quite amused because you found this guy swimming. This is not the first time we have gotten such reports, but when a swimming pool is involved, we naturally figure that the hapless Mole Cricket fell into the pool and couldn’t get out. A lake is a different story, though we suppose it might have fallen off the dock, or perhaps a flying Mole Cricket misjudged a landing. In one previous posting, Paula indicated that they are “great swimmers”. If that is the case, the Mole Cricket, which is a subterranean burrowing insect, might be the first insect that we are aware of that is comfortable in the air, underground and in water. We still believe that though they are able to paddle, they are not happy in water, though crossing small bodies of water might be an advantageous survival habit that might explain the frequency of swimming Mole Cricket instances we have encountered.

Thank you for your quick response,
I’m glad you were amused; nonetheless my children were not entertained by this insect…
That was a memorable and grasping experience…
I also got Video seeing that insect swimming in the lake toward the deck…Swimming very well…Unfortunately your website does not accept video.
So to take pictures I decided to grab the basket from my Pool to catch the insect on the lake, and I carried it on my patio, took 1 picture and the insect run in my pool. Take a few more pictures…
But once again thank you

¶ Posted 11 October 2011 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Tree Cricket is whacked for serenading mate

Bug that makes a cricket soun
Location: San Francisco, CA
September 28, 2011 11:00 pm
Evidently this critter kept my wife up most of the night last night with a cricket like sound, until she tracked it down and whacked it. The body’s about 5/8” long. It kind of looks like a caddis fly, which I know from flyfishing. but I’ve never seen this exact bug before- it doesn’t fit into any of the categories of typical house pests. She said the sound was pretty loud. We’ve had a lot of very warm weather here lately, which is unusual.Any ideas?
Signature: Clifton Lemon

Tree Cricket

Hi Clifton,
In our opinion, whacking a harmless Tree Cricket for calling out to attract a mate constitutes Unnecessary Carnage.

Tree cricket huh? Wow. Agreed about the unnecesssariness of the whacking. Thanks! I was stumped.

We believe it may be a Snowy Tree Cricket, Oecanthus fultoni. The Snowy Tree Cricket is also called a Thermometer Cricket because, according to Charles Hogue in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, you can tell the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit “if one counts the number of chirps in 13 seconds and adds 40.” According to BugGuide: “These are the crickets you hear in movies and on TV when they want to show that it’s out in nature and very quiet.”
P.S. Perhaps it was a hot evening and your wife was having a bad night.

Cool, thanks so much for your excellent work. I am edified,
Clifton

¶ Posted 29 September 2011 § ‡ Comments (0) ° Tagged: unnecessary carnage

Tree Cricket

Can’t find it. Noisy!
Location: Boise, Idaho
September 16, 2011 12:58 am
I caught this bug in my kitchen, in the dark. It is approximately 3/4 inch long. If it is the culprit, it sounds like a cricket, but much louder and consistently sounding long. Kinda like a cicada but entirely more annoying.
What is it, and should I set it free in my neighbor’s bedroom window?
Signature: david

Tree Cricket

Hi David,
This is a Tree Cricket. We are puzzled, because if you find its chirping so annoying, we cannot imagine why you would want to release in in your neighbor’s bedroom window. We feel a much better habitat would be some foliage in the garden.

Thanks! Only annoying because it was keeping me up at night chirping in my kitchen. Loudest cricket I’ve heard. I let him go in the flower garden next to some nice boulders.
david

¶ Posted 16 September 2011 § ‡ Comments (0) °

Identifications needed for high school project

Bugs
Location: Alabama
September 10, 2011 3:28 pm
I am trying to complete a highschool taxonomy project and I need help finding the common names of these bugs.
In some pictures there are several bugs, please identify them all. If you see the same species twice, please let me know. I have some more posts with more pics comming up. Thanks.
Signature: Calac64

High School Students wants to know "What's That Bug?"

bugs post#2
Location: Alabama
September 10, 2011 3:30 pm
I did not mention this in my last post, but my teacher recomende this site find identification.
Signature: Calac64

collection alabama 300x184 Identifications needed for high school project

High School Insect Collection

Dear Calac64,
We believe that when your teacher recommended our website, it was not so that you would send your pictures to have our small staff do your homework for you. We believe we were recommended as a resource that you could use to self identify the insects in your collection.

Ed. Note: Calac64 sent a total of 4 emails with a total of 12 images requesting identifications. There is no indication that Calac64 even attempted any identifications by providing a possible name for one of the insects. If any of our readers would like to identify the insects in the photos, please feel free to post comments.

Thank you for that notification, I agree with your reasoning, but I did not mean to convey my request as you doing my homework. My teacher just wanted us to identify the insects after we find them, and I did not think that she would mind me requesting help. I apologize if I have conveyed my request in that fasion. If you wish to, you can just not identify the insects, I don’t mind, plus I have already identified most of them.

Thank you for responding and clarifying your requests. If you would like verification on any of your identifications, we will try our best to assist.

¶ Posted 11 September 2011 § ‡ Comments (5) °

Camel Cricket

Frog Legs with Lobster Body
Location: Piscataway, NJ
September 1, 2011 1:04 pm
Hello:
My officemates and I found this bug just a moment ago. We have NO idea what it is. It looks like it has frog legs, but has a shell like a crustacean, and a lobster-type body that curls. We are all curious about what it is, and unfortunately, we don’t even know how to begin a Google search for it.
Hurricane Irene just passed us here in central NJ. Our office did not flood, but I’m guessing this mystery bug crawled in here over the weekend.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Signature: Ms. E

Camel Cricket

OK Ms. E,
You had us with that positively intriguing subject line, and then we saw this gorgeous photo of a common basement dweller. Then we read your letter and we have to say, your submission has it all. It is one swell package. This is a Camel Cricket and they are often found in damp dank dark locations, and as soon as we read you were in the path of Hurricane Irene, we thought for sure your basement had flooded and caused your Camel Cricket to seek higher drier ground.

Thanks so much for your speedy response! My coworker posted the photo on Facebook and her scientist friend identified it as a Cave Cricket. I think yours is a more accurate identification. I still see it as having frog legs and a lobster body, though. That is what I get for being a layperson! Thanks again for replying, it was fun. Best wishes on such an awesome project. Sincerely, Kara Escobar.

Cave Cricket is another name for Camel Cricket.