Subject: What type of cricket (?) is this?
Geographic location of the bug: Sydney, Australia
Date: 05/19/2019
Time: 08:36 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hi this cricket (?) leapt at me and then tried to bite me! When I tried to initiate contact it reared back like a spider and it’s mandibles we’re clacking away.
How you want your letter signed: Simon Carter
Dear Simon,
This is a King Cricket in the genus Australostoma. There are images posted to FlickR and The Bug Chicks. According to the Queensland Museum: “Giant King Crickets are found only in rainforest in south-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales. They live in burrows in the soil and emerge on wet nights to forage on the rainforest floor for live insects and rotten fruit. They are closely related to the giant wetas of New Zealand.”
Correction: We received a comment from Matthew that this is actually a Raspy Cricket which is profiled on Brisbane Insects.
All Australian King Crickets (Anostostomatidae) are completely wingless – this one is a juvenile Raspy Cricket (Gryllacrididae)
Thanks for the correction.
Sorry guys, turns out I was wrong – there are some Australian Anostostomatidae that are winged. Luckily this one is still a Raspy Cricket though!
I have found this cricket in Alice Springs NT. But I have only found one. No one here seemed to know what it was. Is it unusual for it to be found out here and does only one of the sexes build a lair like that??