African field cricket (Gryllus bimaculatus)
【Body shape】Crickets are insects from small to medium sized, and their bodies are long-barreled. The whole body is divided into 3 body segments: head, chest and abdomen. The largest body is a species of the genus Cricket, which can grow up to 5 cm in length.
【Body color】The body color of crickets varies greatly depending on the type. Tree crickets of the tree crickets of the subfamily Oecanthinae are mostly pale white or light green, and the forewings are transparent or translucent. Field crickets of the Crickets subfamily Gryllinae are mostly brown, brown or black.
[Head] The head is round or oblate spherical; a pair of antennae on the top of the head are elongated, multi-segmented, and linear; a pair of large compound eyes are located behind the base of the antennae, and there are 3 single eyes on the forehead.
【Chest】Chest part of the chest part of the front chest, middle chest and posterior chest 3 chest segments. The dorsal plate of the anterior thorax is strong, hard-ossified, smooth and ridgeless, and trapezoidal. There is 1 pair of feet under the abdomen of each of the 3 thoracic segments, namely the forefoot, the middle foot, and the hind foot. Each forefoot has 1 or more auditors (tympanic chambers) on the tibia segment of the forefoot, which are the auditory organs (sound receptors) of crickets. 1 Pair of hindfoot leg segments are very developed and powerful, which is conducive to the jumping of crickets, so it is called jumping feet; in addition, there are several spikes on the shin segments of the hind feet, and the arrangement of these spikes varies from species to species. The middle breast and the back of the posterior thorax each have 1 pair of wings, the middle thorax is called the forewing, and the hindbrain on the hindhorax is called the hindwing. The forewings are made up of a hard chitinite (leathery) that overlaps and lays flat on the back of the body, protecting the soft back half of the body and the hindwings; in addition, the leathery forewings have some fine structures of friction and pronunciation (some call it rubbing, some call it rubs, some people call it singing files). ）。 The hindwings are membranous and folded under the forewings like a fan when not in use. Most species of wings are not used for flight. The size of the wings, the degree of degeneration and the presence or absence of wings vary from species to species.
【Abdomen】There is a pair of long tail whiskers at the end of the abdomen, which is an appendage of the ventral end segment. The oviposiforms of female crickets located under the abdomen are slender as rods or needles, smooth and shiny.
【Distribution】Crickets are distributed worldwide between 55° latitudes, and in the Arctic and Antarctic regions beyond this range, crickets have not yet been found. The closer you get to the equator, the more diverse the cricket species. For example, near Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, 88 species of crickets have been identified by their chirping. There are more species actually distributed in the zone than that, as there are many crickets that do not chirp. Crickets are also found on some outlying islands in the ocean, and they may have spread to these places with the help of drifting objects (such as drifting wood) or human traffic and logistics. Crickets on small islands close to the mainland or main island may also have spread by their own ability to migrate.
【Habits】Crickets have a very mixed diet and a very complex habitat. From the canopy of the forest and below, from the shrubland to the meadow, from the beach to the swamp, from the mountains to the water's edge, from the soil to the rotten wood, they can survive. Some crickets live by the water, and they are free to run and jump on the surface of the water. Crickets are nocturnal insects that hide in fissures, burrows, dead branches or grass, dirt blocks, rubble, stones, wood, bark and other places during the day. Many species of crickets can burrow holes in the surface or dead wood. This is very common in corn fields, wheat fields or a variety of anhydrous areas, and the cave depth is generally around 5 cm. Some species burrow deeper below the surface. Species such as the Great Cricket subfamily have excavated caverns up to a depth of 1 m below the surface. When digging a hole, the cricket uses the upper jaw to loosen the soil, and then uses the hind foot to pick up the soil or bulldoze the soil with the head, and the cave is basically formed through the convergence of the antennae and the twisting of the appendages or body. Therefore, in the summer in the cornfield, the cricket hole is often piled with broken soil grains. Crickets can also inhabit ready-made cavities, such as those dug by other animals or naturally formed. Cricket-inhabited caves can be temporary or lifelong. The short one may only be 1 day or temporary avoidance, and the long few days may even be mating, spawning, etc. are also carried out in the hole.
【Defense】The back half of the cricket's body is soft, the ability to resist predators is weak, and it is a delicious prey for many predatory predators. Diurnal and nocturnal outs can avoid the predation of a large number of sunrise predators. Other defensive countermeasures include: some species of body color are similar to background objects, which is camouflaged with protective colors; quickly flee to a safe place; active attack; fly away, most crickets are extremely bad at flying, and when encountering predatory predators, they still flee to a safe place to hide, and rarely fly away.