Moved from Myrmecophilus.

In theory, the size of the Cricket is influenced by the size of the Ants they live with; those associated with small Ants smaller than those with big Ants. That was Hebard's take on it anyway. He couldn't find any morphological distinctions between small and large, and there were lots of intermediates. It would be interesting to know if there are sub-populations genetically adapted to their hosts, or if it's purely based on environmental influences. He quoted one adult Cricket (the eastern species I think - but would need to double check) that was only something like 1.5 mm long !!). I need to look for Ant Crickets in my yard. They are probably here, but I don't make a habit of poking around in Ant nests! I should have M. nebrascensis.

Oh and I meant west (relatively near the coast, as apposed to further inland). I seem to switch "east" and "west" a lot - directionally dyslexic I guess.

Awesome shots. This one especially.

M. manni (but the "male" is a little darker). However, location on the coast side of the mountains would imply M. oregonensis, as would the large size of your specimens (maybe M. manni is usually even paler?). Perhaps these from the mountains are intermediates (?). It could be argued that all the members of this genus in North America are one species, since they replace each other geographically, and seem to run together where they meet (it would make identifying them simple :0).

Moved from ID Request.