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Black field cricket

Teleogryllus commodus

The black field cricket is a shiny black or brown cricket with long feelers and strong jumping legs. At night the males sing by rubbing their wings together. The longer a male sings, the more the females like him.

Lives in
Australia and New Zealand, in pastures, gardens and rocky ground
Length
3 cm (1.2 in)
Top speed
about 3.7 km/h (2.3 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. Farmers do not like it much, because it can eat pastures and garden plants.
What does it eat?
It eats many kinds of plants, and sometimes other food too. Mother crickets need extra protein to make their eggs.
For real!Photo of Black field cricket
Picture by Ghouston. CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Black field cricket about 3 cm long (1.2 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1 secondsmoves 34 times its own body length every second

How big is Black field cricket compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

A male can sing for half the night to call a female to his burrow.

2

Young crickets have a white stripe on their tummy, which disappears when they grow up.

3

Crickets can learn. Scientists taught them to link a smell with a treat.

4

Bats and ground beetles hunt it, so it listens carefully to hear them coming.

5

Its eggs have to soak up water before the baby crickets can hatch.

you asked

Most asked questions about Black field cricket

?Why do black field crickets chirp?

Only the males chirp. They rub their wings together to call females at night.

?What does a black field cricket eat?

Mostly plants, but it is an omnivore and eats other food too.

?Does a black field cricket bite?

It has chewing mouthparts, but it is harmless to people.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Teleogryllus commodus
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Gryllidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Gryllidae
Lives on
Australia and Oceania

Where the facts come from

  1. Teleogryllus commodus (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 Ghouston. CC0, 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.

More from the same group: Grasshoppers and crickets

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows