Cycloptilum (Scudder 1869)
adult male:
subfamily:
Mogoplistinae (Costa 1855)
tribe:
Arachnocephalini (Gorochov 1984)
subtribe:
Arachnocephalina (Gorochov 1984) (Orthoptera Species File)
Cycloptilum nymph:
Introduction
Another disclaimer: What I know about Cycloptilum is nearly nothing. I "accidentally" reared an F1 generation from collected adults. In summer of 2021, I had collected three final-instar Cycloptilum (two females and a male) without knowing what they were. I raised them to full adult and kept them in a cage with plants and supplemental foods. I kept the plants through the winter to use the following season, and to my great surprise, I started seeing tiny babies on the plants the following May. Only twelve babies hatched, and I reared them to adult. That is my only experience with Cycloptilum, so this article will be limited to very short sections on 1) Housing and Care, 2) Life Cycle, 3) Song, and 4) A Different Species.
adult male and female:
The SINA site under the
Mogoplistinae subfamily (scaly crickets) lists 4 genera. The site lists only one species for three of the genera, but 17 species for the Cycloptilum genus (Singing Insects of North America).
I don't know what species of Cycloptilum mine are, but I am guessing Cycloptilum trigonipalpum based on song (the SINA site provides a
song sample and cercal length. Under one
BugGuide image (that actually looks a bit different to me), Robert Love notes the "long body form, very long cerci, long pointed ovipositor, narrow clypeus, wide scapes" of C. trigonipalpum, and those descriptors appear to fit my specimens.
Two similar sounding Cycloptilum songs are those of Cycloptilum slossoni and Cycloptilum kelainopum, but to my (untrained) earballs, the trilled chirps sound shorter in these two species, and they also look different to me.
Love and Walker in their superbly well-researched and fascinating
1979 paper discuss the difficulty in collecting Mogoplistinae: "Most are active, yet small, secretive, cryptic, and nocturnal. Most live in habitats that are personally uncomfortable, physically impenetrable, or visually confusing to the collector." They describe Cycloptilum genus crickets as having an extended pronotum covering at least one-third of the wings along with a calling song and tympana, among other distinctive characteristics. They divide the genus into three groups and offer a key to groups and species with a detailed discussion. Song is a factor in distinguishing among the groups and species. As a complete amateur, I am not someone who can work through their keys, but I do find their article quite elegantly written and a true gem among entomology papers.
a very handsome male:
Housing and Care
HOUSING
For housing Cycloptilum, I used a 30-inch tall mesh butterfly cage. Inside, I added potted plants in 4-inch containers, specifically Chasmanthium latifolium (Inland Sea Oats) and Rivina humilis (Pigeonberry).
Cycloptilum cage:
pigeonberry and inland sea oats in cage:
The crickets liked the blossoms on pigeonberry:
My crickets spent most of their time on the plants, and during the day remained well-camouflaged on the blades of grass:
Adult male resting on grass:
FOOD
I provided supplemental foods, including water and nectar sponges along with organic romaine lettuce, apple slices, rolled oats, and cricket powder. Those most often using the supplemental foods were the younger nymphs and the old-aged adults. Their top choice was romaine lettuce.
Life Cycle
Unfortunately, I never saw the eggs of these crickets, and I don't even know exactly where they were laid. However, I did see what I believe is evidence of their laying eggs in grass stems, as seen here:
This is my original pair, Mom and Dad, who very often snuggled together like this:
I discovered tiny babies on May 23, who grew to adults in seven to eight weeks.
Nymph-to-adult series:
The series above shows my first adult female, who moulted to adult on July 22, 2022.
My first adult male moulted on July 16, 2022:
male nymph and male adult:
exuvia:
older females:
older male:
Song
It was difficult for me to get recordings of my Cycloptilum because of competition with other singers in my rearing room. However, the species I had would make a series of very short trills, lasting perhaps one second each. Listen for the short cricket-sounding trills (among the other singers) in this
VIDEO (sound only).
Here, the same song is present, but much more obscured by other singers. Listen for the cricket-sounding very short trill in this
VIDEO (sound only).
A Different Species
Finally, I had a different species that I collected as an adult, one female only. I have no idea what species she was.
This is the female as she ages:
Here's a comparison of the collected species with my handraised species (right):
--
I didn't intentionally set out to raise these guys and didn't study them, but having them around was a joy. I loved listening to the soft song that they made, and it was sweet to see my original pair snuggle up together. I think these guys enjoy being mysterious, and that was just fine with me. They added their distinctive instrument to my summertime insect orchestra.
adult female resting on pigeonberry leaf:
References
Cycloptilum trigonipalpum. Welcome to BugGuide.Net! - BugGuide.Net. (2016, October 7). https://bugguide.net/node/view/1305369/bgimage
Love, R. E., & Walker, T. J. (1979). Systematics and Acoustic Behavior of Scaly Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Mogoplistinae) of Eastern United States. Transactions of the American Entomological Society (1890-), 105(1), 1–66. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25078233
Singing Insects of North America. (2023). Checklist of Crickets North of Mexico. https://orthsoc.org/sina/cricklist.htm#mogoplistinae
Singing Insects of North America. (2023). Cycloptilum trigonipalpum (Rehn and Hebard 1912). https://orthsoc.org/sina/442a.htm
.