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Species Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa - European Mole Cricket

Big Bug - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa - female Big Bug - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa - female European Mole Cricket - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa - female Unknown Burrowing beetle with the hind end of a cricket, the head of a beetle/cicada - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa Strangest bug I've ever seen - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa Huge mole-like insect in the mud. Some kind of larvae? - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa Northern Mole Cricket - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa Northern Mole Cricket - Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Orthoptera (Grasshoppers, Crickets, Katydids)
Suborder Ensifera (Long-horned Orthoptera)
Infraorder Gryllidea (Crickets)
Family Gryllotalpidae (Mole Crickets)
Genus Gryllotalpa
Species gryllotalpa (European Mole Cricket)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa (Linnaeus 1758)
Explanation of Names
gryll - cricket
talpa - mole
Size
36-46 mm
Identification
Brown, covered with velvety hair. Front legs modified for digging. Females lack the external ovipositor of other crickets.
Range
Europe; in the U.S. recorded roughly from Massachusetts to New York & eastern New Jersey, and also from Belle Glade, Florida. Many of these records seem to represent populations that have not persisted to today.

Currently known to be well established only in Westchester Co., NY, and adjacent CT.
Food
This cricket feeds at night by tunneling the upper 1-2" of the soil; feeding on seedlings, roots and stems cutting them off above the ground, also eats the seeds. (1)
Life Cycle
Eggs are laid in underground chambers.
Remarks
Introduced from Europe. It reached pest proportions in the 1910s
Works Cited
1.Eastern Forest Insects
Whiteford L. Baker. 1972. U.S. Department of Agriculture · Forest Service.