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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids (Orthoptera) » Long-horned Orthoptera (Ensifera) » True Crickets (Gryllidae) » Field Crickets (Gryllinae) » Field Crickets (Gryllus)
Photo#254981
Unknown cricket - Gryllus
Copyright © 2004 Arlo Pelegrin

Unknown cricket - Gryllus
Southwest Research Station, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
June 20, 2004
Size: 25mm
I fed hundreds of these crickets to my belostomatids, and about 1 in 8 contained a horsehair worm, which wriggled out as soon as the cricket hit the water.
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Contributed by Arlo Pelegrin on 24 February, 2009 - 1:32pm
Last updated 5 April, 2009 - 1:49pm

Looks like
a male Gryllus nymph. Hard to say which species, as there are several in that part of the world, some probably without names yet. Probably couldn't get it from a photo, even if an adult. Field Crickets are tough to identify - they all look so much alike (well most anyway).

Those worms are always impressive. I always wonder how the Cricket (Grasshopper, or whatever) can stay alive with such a think feeding inside it. I wonder if anyone here might know why the worm would abandon ship in contact with water (?self preservation, ?to lay eggs???)
… David J. Ferguson, 24 February, 2009 - 2:46pm login or register to post comments

 
From what I understand
those worms have a semiaquatic larval stage that somehow ends up on shoreline vegetation that is eaten by the hosts. The worms appear grotequely out-of-proportion to their hosts when they emerge.
… Arlo Pelegrin, 24 February, 2009 - 2:50pm login or register to post comments

 
I've seen them
inside of Mormon Crickets in the middle of the desert. I've never really looked into their life cycles, nor even their taxonomy, but they must be varied, considering the varied conditions supplied by their hosts and habitats. Hard to imagine a species in the middle of the desert having a semi-aquatic life cycle, when even a puddle after a rain is a rare thing - but possible I suppose. Another fascinating subject for me to learn more about now.
… David J. Ferguson, 24 February, 2009 - 2:56pm login or register to post comments

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