Dark Raspy Cricket
S2, Head & Spiracle
Dark Raspy Cricket
S3, Pronotum in profile
| Dark Raspy Cricket S2, Head & Spiracle | | Dark Raspy Cricket S3, Pronotum in profile | | ||
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | |||
| Order: | Crickets, Grasshoppers & Katydids (Orthoptera) | ||||
| Family: | Leaf-rolling Cricket (Gryllacrididae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Dark Raspy Cricket (Craspedogryllacris atrofrons) | ||||
| This Photo: | S3, Antenna | ||||
Thank you Dr Paul Whitington for identifying and Matthew Connors & Frances (CicadaExplorer) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere 1st Live Photo on-line 1st Record on Atlas Males ~24-25mm, while the female adult S11 was considerably larger at ~35 (excluding ovipositor). S9 (adult female) was ~28mm. S3 Male antennae length was 45mm, S11 Female ovi-positor length ~35mm, while S9's was only ~29mm. S3 was the first adult we caught, and it was very sick. Could have been a spider bite, dehydration, etc. At first, we thought it was at it's end of life, but after giving it a drink and keeping it in a container all day it's vitality returned, so we released it. A reddish brown face (black at some angles) with a white spot between the eyes and two oblong white patches above the antenna base. Their front legs have two vertical rows of strong spines to catch & hold prey. We were surprised that it was aggressive! David Rentz suggests they are ferocious. We heard it "rasping" it's wings but a video couldn't pick up the sound, it's too quiet. They are also called Leaf-rolling Crickets because they can produce webbing from their mouths to wrap a leaf up to hide in. Very similar to Leaf-curling spiders. Even more surprising is that it's wing venation is different from one side to the other. We found this on another specimen, so wing venation isn't diagnostic here (unless we have a number of different species). They can also have asymmetric genetalia - possibly can even have male & female genitalia. We can't be sure they are all the same species, but since the features look to match up (spots on the face, etc) it's a reasonable assumption. Notice, on the female nymphs, the ovi-positor curls up over the abdomen to keep out the way while growing; and gets longer with each instar. Through other miss-id'ed images, we thought this might be Apotrechus sp, but Matthew said "Apotrechus are completely wingless and lack dark markings on the face" S2 = Female Early Instar S3 = Male Adult S4 = Male Adult S6 = Male Adult S7 = Female Final Instar S11 = Female Adult | |||||
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