Subject: Help…
Location: NC
September 25, 2015 12:58 am
Me and a few coworkers saw this bug at work yesterday and I thought it was a baby mantis but coworkers think differently. It jumps and also has wings that you can see in photo. Thanks for your help.
Signature: A Puzzled Working Woman
Dear Puzzled Working Woman,
We believe your Tree Cricket is a Snowy Tree Cricket, a species sometimes called a Thermometer Cricket because it can be used in lieu of a thermometer to determine the temperature. Like many other Orthopterans, the Snowy Tree Cricket uses sound to attract a mate, and according to Charles Hogue in his wonderful book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, one can determine the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit: “if one counts the number of chirps in 13 seconds and adds 40.”