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Sticker of Armoured ground cricket
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Armoured ground cricket

Acanthoplus discoidalis
Eats: A bit of everythingGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The armoured ground cricket is a chunky, wide insect from southern Africa with sharp spikes on its back like a knight's armour. It cannot fly, so it walks everywhere. When it is attacked it has some very surprising tricks.

Lives in
Southern Africa, in Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa
Length
5 cm (2 in)
Top speed
about 4.7 km/h (2.9 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
It has strong jaws and can give a painful nip, and it may squirt a little of its own blood. Watch it, but do not pick it up.
What does it eat?
It eats almost anything it finds: tough plants, crops like sorghum and millet, and dead animals. When it is short of food it even eats other armoured crickets.
For real!Photo of Armoured ground cricket
Picture by SoniaSoma. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Armoured ground cricket about 5 cm long (2 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 8 grains of rice in a rowas long as 1.5 toy building bricks in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 0.8 secondsmoves 26 times its own body length every second

How big is Armoured ground cricket compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

To scare away enemies it can squirt its own bad-tasting blood from little holes in its body, up to 3 centimetres away.

2

After squirting, it carefully cleans itself so other crickets are not tempted to eat it.

3

The boys sing by rubbing body parts together to call the girls, but the girls cannot sing.

4

Because it cannot fly, farmers can stop it by digging a deep ditch around their field.

5

The boy gives the girl a little packet of food as a present when they pair up.

you asked

Most asked questions about Armoured ground cricket

?Can the armoured ground cricket bite?

Yes. Its strong jaws can give a painful nip, so it is best not to pick it up.

?Why does the armoured ground cricket squirt blood?

It is a trick to scare off enemies. Its blood tastes bad to lizards and other hunters.

?Can the armoured ground cricket fly?

No. It has no wings for flying and walks everywhere.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Acanthoplus discoidalis
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Tettigoniidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
Lives on
Africa
Also known as
Armoured katydid, Armoured bush cricket, Corn cricket

Where the facts come from

  1. Acanthoplus discoidalis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by SoniaSoma. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.

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