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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids (Orthoptera) » Grasshoppers (Caelifera) » Pygmy Mole 'Crickets' (Tridactylidae)

Family Tridactylidae - Pygmy Mole 'Crickets'

Classification · Other Common Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Habitat · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited
Neotridactylus archboldi Pygmy Mole 'Cricket' Neotridactylus apicialis, Larger pygmy mole grasshopper - Neotridactylus apicialis Cricket ? - Ellipes minuta Pale pygmy mole cricket - Neotridactylus apicialis BG2201 C5763 - Ellipes minuta BG2201 C5763 - Ellipes minuta Cricket? - Ellipes minuta
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Caelifera (Grasshoppers)
Family Tridactylidae (Pygmy Mole 'Crickets')
Other Common Names
Pygmy Sand Cricket
Sand Cricket
Pygmy Mole Grasshopper
Numbers
Two North American genera and species are usually listed: Ellipes minuta Scudder and Neotridactylus apicialis Say (1). Species Ellipes eisneri was described from Florida in 2005 (Deyrup, 2005).
Size
less than 10 mm
Identification
Small orthopterans, rather flattened, so resemble crickets, though more closely-related to grasshoppers. Living near small bodies of water, they are able to swim well. Characteristics:
hind femora enlarged (used for jumping), flattened (apparently for use in swimming)
front and middle tarsi with two segments, rear with three (tarsal formula 2-2-3)
Habitat
Typically sandy margins of ponds, ditches, streams
See Also
superficially similar but unrelated Gryllotalpidae - Mole Crickets, suborder Ensifera
Print References
Capinera, Field Guide to Grasshoppers, p. 152, plate 33 (1)
Castner, Photographic Atlas of Entomology, p. 64 (2)
Bland, How to Know the Insects, pp. 92-93 (3)
Internet References
Insects of Cedar Creek
Deyrup, 2005 in Florida Entomologist
Works Cited
1.Field Guide To Grasshoppers, Katydids, And Crickets Of The United States
By John L. Capinera, Ralph D. Scott, Thomas J. Walker
2.Photographic Atlas of Entomology and Guide To Insect Identification
By James L. Castner
3.How to Know the Insects
By Roger G. Bland, H.E. Jaques
Contributed by Jeff Hollenbeck on 5 March, 2006 - 1:34am
Additional contributions by cotinis, David Ferguson
Last updated 24 January, 2009 - 6:44pm

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