Species Gryllus veletis - Spring Field Cricket

Gryllus veletis (Alexander and Bigelow 1960)

Roughly northern half of US, south to New Mexico in Rockies and Georgia and Missouri in Ozarks and Applachians.

eggs hatch late in the warm season and overwinter as nymphs (mostly about half to nearly completely grown). They mature early in the spring and are the most common (or only) large black cricket with a musical slow(ish) chirp in the spring in many regions.

A black spring cricket of cold winter regions. Very like G. pennsylvanicus. G. firmus, and at least a few southwestern species (some still unnamed), and virtually impossible to tell from them except by where found, what time of year, and sometimes by habitat. Some can be identified (at least males) by anatomical examination with specimens in hand.