Cricket
Everybody ready to get back to nonfiction? I sure am. Fiction is much, much harder to write!
Here’s a black cricket I photographed out in front of Warehouse 23 the day Steve Jackson and I went bughunting for InsectPOD pictures.
She’s laying her eggs between the paving stones.
This was in early September of 2008. I don’t know the species, but it was in Austin, TX.
Any takers on an ID?
Moved InsectPOD to a new server last week due to some performance problems; new server much worse. Apologies. Will fix. Stay tuned.
rudibez said,
November 4, 2008 @ 10:43 am
Hi there…
I’m kind of new with naming insects.I just started studying entomology in South Africa Univesity Of Pretoria.
But I’m geussing the is the Northen Fall Field cricket or Gryllus pennsylvanicus.
I’m probably completely wrong so don’t be to harsh on me.
Rudi
tceisele said,
November 4, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
I think rudibez is right about it being a field cricket in the genus Gryllus, but I don’t think it’s Gryllus pennsylvanicus - that’s one of the ones we have here way up north, and they are jet black, not dark brown. Also, it looks like she has some sort of sheath projecting from her back and over her ovipositor, that G. pennsylvanicus doesn’t have. There is a picture on Bug Guide that has that same sort of sheath that was also found in Texas, but unfortunately that one isn’t identified any further than the genus, either.
tceisele said,
November 4, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
Actually, poking around on BugGuide a bit more, it looks like one of the cricket species where the hindwings project back and roll up, kind of like this one in the genus Allonemobius. Thing is, I’m not entirely sure now that this one is even a female. It’s got heavily corrugated forewings like you normally see in the males, and I can’t really see for sure whether there is actually an ovipositor under those rolled-up hindwings. We can almost see the tip of the abdomen, and it doesn’t quite look like there is an ovipositor connected.
rudibez said,
November 4, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
Well i tried, its kind of difficult seeing that I don’t know the american continent that well. Give me some South African insects. Whooohooo, they are just the best….
tceisele said,
November 5, 2008 @ 6:53 am
rudibez: it was a good try, certainly within the ballpark, and I’m really just tossing out possibilities that don’t actually narrow things down much more than you did. There are a lot of different kinds of cricket in North America, and they all look pretty similar.
Have you sent David some pictures of some of your South African insects? I’m sure he’d appreciate them!
David Brady said,
November 5, 2008 @ 10:40 pm
@rudibez: Welcome to the site! Thank you for you identification work, it’s always tricky trying to identify insects from Very Far Away. For example, one Australian reader sent me a photo of a purple praying mantis. The general consensus among US entomologists was “wow, that is a very clever bit of photoshop”.
…and then some Aussie readers wrote in to tell me that no, blue and purple praying mantises are uncommon but hardly rare down there.
Thank you again, and you are most certainly welcome to pitch in. Even if you don’t have a specific identification, any parallels between the insects of your continent and ours are most welcome.
And tceisele has the right of it: if you have photos, by all means send them in!
rudibez said,
November 6, 2008 @ 12:59 pm
Hi Thanks for making me feel so welcome.
I sent 2 emails but I have no idea if you got them. I still have a couple of nice shots of garden orb spiders, some weird colony of ladybird insects, violin spider(south african one), and some other insects which I will send in as soon as i figured out whats wrong with my email.
Thanks again.
Rudi