| Gryllotalpa africana | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Orthoptera |
| Suborder: | Ensifera |
| Family: | Gryllotalpidae |
| Genus: | Gryllotalpa |
| Species: | G. africana |
| Binomial name | |
| Gryllotalpa africana (Palisot de Beauvois, 1805) | |
Gryllotalpa africana, also known as the African mole cricket, is a relatively small mole cricket species, native to Africa, but local populations exist in Asia, and southern Europe.
It is now understood that G. africana is a species complex that may include cryptic species. These cryptic species can be distinguished only by their song patterns. There are two subspecies of G. africana; the Orthoptera Species File [1] lists:
The species is omnivorous. The mole cricket lives underground, making burrows and feeding on plant roots, larvae and other insects. It goes to the surface only at night - mostly in the mating season. It can fly too, when changing territory or when females are searching for males. Males call females by chirping. This cricket is considered a pest in some regions.
Mole crickets are members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera. Mole crickets are cylindrical-bodied, fossorial insects about 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) long as adults, with small eyes and shovel-like fore limbs highly developed for burrowing. They are present in many parts of the world and where they have arrived in new regions, may become agricultural pests.
Gryllinae, or field crickets, are a subfamily of insects in the order Orthoptera and the family Gryllidae.
Ambroise Marie François Joseph Palisot, Baron de Beauvois was a French naturalist and zoologist.
Tree crickets are insects of the order Orthoptera. These crickets are in the subfamily Oecanthinae of the family Gryllidae.
Gryllotalpa major,also known as the Prairie Mole Cricket, is endemic to the United States and is the largest cricket in North America. Its natural habitat is temperate grassland and it belongs to the family Gryllotalpidae. It is threatened by habitat loss, and is currently only found in Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Arkansas. Males of this species produce sounds by rubbing their fore wings together. They sing from special burrows they construct in the prairie soil to attract females for mating, and they can be heard at distances up to 400 m from the burrow. Males aggregate their acoustic burrows in a lek arena and are very sensitive to vibrations carried through the ground. Males communicate with neighboring males through vibrational signals, and the songs they project to flying females are harmonic chirps, rather than the trills produced by most mole crickets.
Gryllotalpa is a genus of insects in the mole cricket family Gryllotalpidae.
Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, commonly known as the European mole cricket, is widespread in Europe and has been introduced to the eastern United States. The scientific name is 'mole cricket', derived from the Latin 'gryllus' (cricket); and 'talpa' (mole), because of the fine dense fur which covers it and its subterranean habits, and because of the mole-like forelegs adapted for digging, a good example of convergent evolution.
Platygryllus is a genus of crickets in the subfamily Gryllinae. Records of species distribution include Africa, southern Europe and in Asia: India, Java and the Philippines.
Gryllotalpa orientalis is a species of mole cricket in the family Gryllotalpidae, commonly known as the oriental mole cricket. It is found in much of Asia and Australasia. At one time, this species was misidentified as G. africana and thought to have a widespread distribution in both Africa and Asia, but in the 1980s, G. orientalis was recognised as a separate species. It is a polyphagous pest, damaging crops by gnawing their roots.
Chlorocala is a genus of beetles belonging to the family Scarabaeidae.
Pseudocreobotra ocellata, known as the African flower mantis or with other species as the spiny flower mantis, is a flower mantis native to Africa, ranging from Angola and South Africa in the south to Uganda in the east and Senegal in the west. It was described by the French naturalist Palisot de Beauvois in 1805.
Grylloidea is the superfamily of insects, in the order Orthoptera, known as crickets. It includes the "true crickets", scaly crickets, wood crickets and other families, some only known from fossils.
Nemobiinae is a subfamily of the newly constituted Trigonidiidae, one of the cricket families. The type genus is Nemobius, which includes the wood cricket, but members of this subfamily may also be known as ground crickets or "pygmy field crickets".
Gryllotalpa vineae is a species of mole cricket in the family Gryllotalpidae. It is found in southwestern Europe and was first described by the entomologists H. C. Bennet-Clark and Blaine H. Goodposts in 1970 after having realised that it must be a different species from the European mole cricket because of its distinctive song.
Paratettix is a genus of ground-hoppers or pygmy grasshoppers, with more than 60 described species found worldwide.
Gryllotalpa unispina is a species of mole cricket, in the G. gryllotalpa species group, found in Eastern Europe through to Manchuria. No subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of Life.
Gryllotalpa septemdecimchromosomica is a species of mole cricket, in the G. gryllotalpa species group, found in Spain and France: where it may be known as le courtillière Provençale. No subspecies are listed in the Catalogue of Life.
Tridactylus is a genus of pygmy mole crickets, with species recorded from Africa, India, Indo-China and Australia.
Gryllini is a tribe of crickets and typical of the family Gryllidae. Species are terrestrial, carnivorous or omnivorous and can be found in all continenents except Antarctica.
Media related to Gryllotalpa africana at Wikimedia Commons