Crickets

=Suborder: Ensifera=

Fig 1: A female Field Cricket (//Gryllus sp.//)

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Orthropoda Suborder: Ensifera
 * Taxonomy**

The suborder Ensifera includes all the long-horned grasshoppers (katydids) and all of the crickets, while the short-horned grasshoppers belong to the suborder Caelifera (3). Crickets occur through out the world with 120 species found in the United States [|(1)]. Crickets are found on soil, under dead leaves/plants, under rocks/logs in damp areas, and on live plants; they live where there is plenty of plant material to be eaten and are most abundant and diverse in humid areas [|(1)][|(2)]. Most crickets are nocturnal and come out at night to "sing" in order to mate or communicate [|(2)].

Crickets can vary in color from black, brown, yellowish-brown, and sometimes green. They are medium to large insects, they have chewing mouth parts, two pairs of wings (one leathery and tough and the other soft and flexible), large hind legs for jumping, long and thin antennae, wings bend down on the side of the body, and unlike katydids, they often look flat or that the top of the body is flat [|(1)]. Male crickets produce their songs (chirping noise) by rubbing their front wings together, which have large veinless areas that serve as resonating membranes (3). These resonating membranes amplify the songs produced when the basal scraper on the upper surface of one front wing rubs against the file-like ridge on the lower surface of the other wing (3). Crickets tend to have the right wing on top while singing, while other long-horned Orthoptera tend to have their left wing on top (3). Crickets have songs for aggression, defense, and territoriality, but most of the time the songs are produced for mating. The tympanum (ear) is located on the front leg at the base of the tibia and is how crickets hear the sounds of other crickets (3).
 * Description**

Female crickets have an ovipositor (a long, sharp egg laying tube) unlike their short-horned relatives, and lay eggs by inserting the ovipositor into twigs, plants, and soil (3). The life cycle of a cricket is Hemimetabolous (incomplete metamorphoses), in that the young look like the adult with a few differences (one usually being no wings on the young), have the same feeding habits, and the same niche. The young hatch from the egg and look like their parents; they then go through a series of molts as they grow up into an adult. Breading season is in late spring, summer, or early fall and the female crickets can lay anywhere from a dozen to a couple hundred eggs with the young taking care of themselves when they hatch [|(1)].
 * Life Cycle**

Fig 2: Life cycle not including egg (Grasshopper is pictured, but cycle is the same).

Crickets are omnivores that feed on fruit, nectar, seeds, small insects, leaves, decaying plant material, and fungus [|(1)][|(2)]. Most predators of crickets are spiders, ground beetles, birds, some wasps, small rodents, and lizards [|(2)]. Crickets usually hide during the day time and run fast in order to escape predators [|(1)].
 * Predators and Prey**

Crickets don't have a huge impact on crops like grasshoppers do, but they do impact crops and the environment in certain ways. Crickets break down plant material and renew minerals in the soil; they also are an important food source for other animals and certain human cultures around the world [|(2)]. Crickets can injure seedlings and crops in large numbers, but are usually not destructive [|(2)].
 * Ecological Importance and Human Impact**

Page created by Abeles, J 1. Hammond, George. "Crickets: Gryllidae." Universit of Michigan Museum of Zoology, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <[]>
 * References**

2. "Cricket Information." University of Arizona, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <[]>

3. Marshall, Stephen A. (2006) "Insects Their Natural History and Diversity." Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books Inc. pp. 71-75.

Fig 1: A female field cricket. Retrieved 11 Nov. 2013 from: <[]>
 * Images**

Fig 2: Life cycle of grasshoppers. Retrieved 8 Nov. 2013 from: < [] >