Subject: Cricket ???
Geographic location of the bug: Angledool NSW
Date: 01/08/2018
Time: 05:26 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: Hi,
Someone has suggested this is a raspy cricket – there are several neat round holes in trees without a net and a couple with a net. It is closed all day and there at night when we look. The net is hard and you can scratch it with your fingernail which makes the bug come to the entrance. It is water soluble as I wet some in my insect hotel (bottom levels) and it disintegrated. Thank you
How you want your letter signed: Kym
Dear Kym,
The person who suggested that this is a Raspy Cricket is correct. We have an image in our archive of a very similar Raspy Cricket lair, but without its inhabitant. We suspect this is probably a Striped Raspy Cricket, Paragryllacris combusta, a species pictured on Brisbane Insects where it states: “Striped Raspy Crickets are also known as Tree Crickets. Adults are dark brown to pale brown in colour with fully developed wings. They have very long antenna, all legs are spiny. They hide in nest on tree during the day. Their nest is usually two board leaves hold together by silky material. They are well known for their ability to find the way home after foraging distance away. ” The site also states: “The crickets are nocturnal species and are found wandering around vegetation during the night. ... The Cricket nests in holes in trees and between the leaf-sheaths of plants.“
