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

Family Tridactylidae - Pygmy Mole 'Crickets'

Minimole cricket - Neotridactylus archboldi

Which Cricket please........ - Neotridactylus apicialis

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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