Gryllus assimilis

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Gryllus assimilis
Gryllus assimilis male 02.jpg
Gryllus assimilis male
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Ensifera
Family: Gryllidae
Genus: Gryllus
Species:
G. assimilis
Binomial name
Gryllus assimilis
(Fabricius, 1775) [1]
Synonyms [1]
  • G. aztecus Saussure, 1859
  • G. collocatus Walker, 1869
  • G. cubensis Saussure, 1859
  • G. determinatus Walker, 1869
  • G. luridus Walker, 1869
  • G. mexicanus Saussure, 1859
  • G. neglectus Scudder, 1862
  • G. septentrionalis Walker, 1869
  • G. similaris Walker, 1869

Gryllus assimilis, commonly known as the Jamaican field cricket and sometimes referred to as the silent cricket (a misnomer [lower-alpha 1] ) among other names, [lower-alpha 2] is one of many cricket species known as a field cricket. Its natural habitats are the West Indies and parts of the southern United States, Mexico, and South America, though as a result of widespread breeding programs to supply feeder insects to the pet industry since 2010, it has become available commercially throughout North America and Europe.

Contents

Taxonomy

At one time, many field crickets found in the eastern states of the United States were assumed to be a single species and were referred to as Gryllus assimilis. However, in 1932, the entomologist B. B. Fulton showed that four populations of field cricket in North Carolina, that were morphologically identical and which were all considered to be G. assimilis, produced four different songs. It was further observed that though some had overlapping habitats, each population had different seasonal life cycles and were unable to cross-breed. Further investigation led to the acceptance of a species complex comprising eight species in the eastern states, including two that have indistinguishable songs but different seasons of activity, and one where the males are mute. Once these eight species were distinguishable by song, tiny morphological differences were discovered between them, such as the precise number of teeth on the stridulatory mechanism. [2] None of these species are the Jamaican field cricket, which was first described in 1775 by the Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius, the type locality being Jamaica. [1]

Subspecies

There are two subspecies : [1]

Distribution and habitat

Gryllus assimilis female-- the black hair-like structure visible at her posterior end is her ovipositor Gryllus assimilis female.jpg
Gryllus assimilis female-- the black hair-like structure visible at her posterior end is her ovipositor

Gryllus assimilis occurs in the West Indies, southern United States, Mexico and parts of South America. [1] In the United States, it is limited to Florida and southern Texas. Its typical habitat is weedy fields, roadside verges, lawns and rough pasture. [3]

Life cycle

Females deposit as many as 400 eggs via an ovipositor into damp soil. At suitably warm temperatures (between 25 °C (77 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F) , eggs usually hatch in about eleven days. Nymphal stages take place for another three six to seven weeks, at which point the insect reaches sexual maturity and the males begin calling for females. Eggs are often consumed cannibalistically by adults searching the soil for food.

As pests

Crickets of this species are considered pests in vegetable and flower gardens as well as in citrus nurseries. In the past they have been controlled by fumigating the soil with calcium cyanide, a highly toxic poison. [4]

Call

The call, issued only by the male, is a short, pulsed chirp emitted at intervals of about one second. The pulse rate is rapid and the intervals between the pulses brief, so each chirp sounds like a continuous sound. [3]

Diseases

The Jamaican field cricket is immune to cricket paralysis virus, a disease which swept through the cricket rearing industry in 2010 and devastated the existing stock of the commonly-purchased and very similar house crickets in the United States and Europe. This has led to the Jamaican field cricket becoming the latest "standard" cricket available for purchase as a food for pets. [5]

Confusion of Gryllus locorojo with Gryllus assimilis

The other species, Gryllus locorojo , different morphologically and by its songs, also known as "crazy red" or "banana cricket", is often confused with Gryllus assimilis. [6] [7] Gryllus locorojo has a medium-large body, long or short winged, typically reddish/brownish colored head with three or four longitudinal stripes visible even in specimens with darker heads. According to Varvara Vedenina, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow: "The cricket culture under name "Gryllus assimilis" came to the Moscow Zoo from the Berlin Zoo in the beginning of the 1990s. No details are known. A bit latter, in 1997, the cricket eggs under name "Gryllus argentinus" came from Paris Museum of Natural History to St. Petersburg. These eggs definitely originated from Ecuador, since French colleagues returned from an expedition there. Both cultures appear to be identical". [6] This cricket, predominantly known as "Gryllus assimilis" in Russia and Europe (sometimes also referred as "Gryllus argentinus"), [6] [7] was described as a new species by D.B. Weissman and D.A. Gray in 2012 and should not be confused neither with the true Gryllus assimilis nor with the true Gryllus argentinus. [6] [7]

Notes

  1. Males produce a calling song which is quieter than that of many other cricket species, making them more attractive to hobbyists raising them as food for pets, but are not actually "silent".
  2. Also referred to as the brown cricket (though that name is often used for the house cricket), Steppengrille, and steppe cricket.

Related Research Articles

Tettigoniidae Family of insects

Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids, or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 6,400 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, the Tettigoniidae are the only extant (living) family in the superfamily Tettigonioidea.

Mole cricket Members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae

Mole crickets are members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera. Mole crickets are cylindrical-bodied 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 Subfamily of crickets

Gryllinae, or field crickets, are a subfamily of insects in the order Orthoptera and the family Gryllidae.

<i>Ormia ochracea</i> Species of fly

Ormia ochracea is a small yellow nocturnal fly in the family Tachinidae. It is notable for its parasitism of crickets and its exceptionally acute directional hearing. The female is attracted to the song of the male cricket and deposits larvae on or around him, as was discovered in 1975 by the zoologist William H. Cade.

<i>Gryllus campestris</i> European species of insect

Gryllus campestris, the European field cricket or simply the field cricket in the British Isles, is the type species of crickets in its genus and tribe Gryllini. These flightless dark colored insects are comparatively large; the males range from 19 to 23 mm and the females from 17 to 22 mm.

<i>Gryllus bimaculatus</i> Species of cricket

Gryllus bimaculatus is a species of cricket in the subfamily Gryllinae. Most commonly known as the two-spotted cricket, it has also been called the "African" or "Mediterranean field cricket", although its recorded distribution also includes much of Asia, including Korea, China and Indochina through to Borneo. It can be discriminated from other Gryllus species by the two dot-like marks on the base of its wings.

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.

<i>Gryllus pennsylvanicus</i> Species of cricket

Gryllus pennsylvanicus is known as the fall field cricket. G. pennsylvanicus is common in southern Ontario, is widespread across much of North America and can be found even into parts of northern Mexico. It tends to be absent in most of the southwestern United States including southern California. Within its geographic range this field cricket will burrow into soil in fields and forest edges. Individuals inhabit grassy disturbed areas and are often found around areas of human habitation.

Gryllus veletis, commonly known as the spring field cricket, is abundant throughout eastern North America. G. veletis is a solitary, aggressive, omnivorous, burrow-inhabiting species of cricket. This species is commonly confused with Gryllus pennsylvanicus, as they inhabit the same geographical area. However, the two species are easily distinguished through examination of life history, ovipositor and behavioural differences. Predators of G. veletis, and most field crickets, include American toads, wild turkeys, red-tailed hawks, wolf spiders and red-backed salamanders.

Cricket (insect) Small insects of the family Gryllidae

Crickets are Orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms, "crickets" were placed at the family level, but contemporary authorities including Otte now place them in the superfamily Grylloidea. The word has been used in combination to describe long-recognised unrelated taxa in the suborder Ensifera, such as king crickets and mole crickets.

<i>Gryllus</i> Genus of crickets

Gryllus is a genus of field cricket. Members of the genus are typically 15–31 mm long and darkly coloured. The type species is Gryllus campestris L.: the European field cricket.

Crickets as pets

Keeping crickets as pets emerged in China in early antiquity. Initially, crickets were kept for their "songs" (stridulation). In the early 12th century the Chinese people began holding cricket fights. Throughout the Imperial era the Chinese also kept pet cicadas and grasshoppers, but crickets were the favorites in the Forbidden City and with the commoners alike. The art of selecting and breeding the finest fighting crickets was perfected during the Qing dynasty and remained a monopoly of the imperial court until the beginning of the 19th century.

<i>Conocephalus fuscus</i>

Conocephalus fuscus, the long-winged conehead, is a member of the family Tettigoniidae, the bush-crickets and is distributed through much of Europe and temperate Asia. This bush-cricket is native to the British Isles where it may confused with the short-winged conehead. These two species are phenotypically similar; however, the distinguishing factor between the two is the fully developed set of wings the long-winged conehead possesses that allows for flight. In the short-winged coneheads the hind wings are shorter than the abdomen, causing the wings to be vestigial and the species is incapable of flight. For this reason it is hard to discriminate between the two species during the early stages of their life cycle before the wings have fully developed. The colouration of the conehead is typically a grass green with a distinctive brown stripe down its back, though there are some brown phenotypes.

<i>Gryllus rubens</i> Species of cricket

Gryllus rubens, commonly known as the southeastern field cricket, is one of many cricket species known as a field cricket. It occurs throughout most of the Southeastern United States. Its northern range spans from southern Delaware to the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas, with a southern range stretching from Florida to eastern Texas.

<i>Oecanthus fultoni</i> Species of cricket

Oecanthus fultoni, also known as the snowy tree cricket, or thermometer cricket, is a species of tree cricket from North America. It feeds on leaves but also damages fruit. The chirp of this species is often dubbed onto sound tracks of films and television shows to depict a quiet summer's night. The rate of chirp varies depending on the heat of the environment, allowing a listener to estimate the temperature.

<i>Gryllus bryanti</i> Species of cricket

Gryllus bryanti is a species of cricket in the subfamily Gryllinae. G. bryanti lives on islands in the Caribbean Sea, including Eleuthera Island and Andros Island in the Bahamas.

Gryllus integer, commonly known as the western trilling cricket, is one of many species of field cricket in the genus Gryllus. It is called the "triller" field cricket because its song is nearly continuous rather than broken into discrete chirps. G. integer can be found in parts of the Western United States, having been recorded from Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico.

Scapteriscus abbreviatus, the short-winged mole cricket, is a species of insect in the mole cricket family, Gryllotalpidae. It is native to South America but has been introduced inadvertently into Florida, in the United States. Unlike other related species, it is unable to fly, nor do the males emit songs in order to attract females.

Gryllus firmus, commonly known as the sand field cricket, is a species of cricket in the subfamily Gryllinae. It is found in the southeastern United States.

<i>Pterophylla camellifolia</i> Species of katydid

Pterophylla camellifolia, the common true katydid, is a common North American insect in the family Tettigoniidae (katydids). Within the Tettigoniidae, it belongs to the subfamily Pseudophyllinae. Other common names include northern true katydid and rough-winged katydid.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gryllus (Gryllus) assimilis assimilis (Fabricius, 1775)". Orthoptera Species File. Retrieved 2015-05-11.
  2. Huber, Franz (1989). Cricket Behavior and Neurobiology. Cornell University Press. p. 8. ISBN   978-0-8014-2272-0.
  3. 1 2 Choate, Paul M. (2014-05-01). "Jamaican field cricket". Featured Creatures. University of Florida. Retrieved 2015-05-11.
  4. Jamaica (1932). Annual General Report Together with the Departmental Reports. p. 210.
  5. Rosemary Parker (19 January 2012). "Following Cricket Paralysis Virus catastrophe, Top Hat Cricket Farm in Portage rebuilds it business". Michigan Live.
  6. 1 2 3 4 "Weissman, D. B., Gray, D. A., Pham, H. T., & Tijssen, P. (2012). Billions and billions sold: pet-feeder crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae), commercial cricket farms, an epizootic densovirus, and government regulations make a potential disaster. Zootaxa, 3504(6)" (PDF).
  7. 1 2 3 Shestakov L. S. (2012). "A problem of taxonomic status of "banana cricket" from culture of the Moscow Zoo insectarium". Entomological Review. 92 (3): 262–270. doi:10.1134/S0013873812030025.