Scientific Name:
Anabrus simplex
Order and Family:
Tettigoniidae, Long-horned Grasshoppers
Pest Control Recommendation:
Cricket Exterminator
Description:
1-2 3/8″ (25-60 mm). Dark brown to bluish-black, sometimes with pale markings. The large pronotum extends backward, concealing the female’s vestigial wings and almost covering male’s reduced wings. Ovipositor upcurved, swordlike, as long as the body. Antennae as long as the body.
Food:
Lupine, sagebrush, and many plants, including grains and vegetables.
Life Cycle:
Dark brown eggs are deposited below the soil surface in midsummer. They turn gray, overwinter, and hatch in spring. Up to 100 nymphs emerge, maturing in about 60 days.
Habitat:
Open fields.
Range:
Missouri River to n. Arizona, west to se. California, north to Alberta.
Discussion:
This common cricket got its common name after thousands suddenly attacked the Mormon pioneers’ first crops in Utah in 1848. Fortunately, many California gulls arrived in time to devour the crickets and save the crops.
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