Cricket field: description, features, habitat and interesting facts

Surprisingly, among the pets can be a normal cricket. Types and lifestyle of these insects, as well as nutrition, reproduction, content and interesting facts can be found in this article.

History of appearance and types of crickets

These insects appeared on the planet about 300 million years ago. They belong to the squad and the family True Crickets, which includes 8 subfamilies. Zoologists describe at the moment 2,300 different species found. In Russia, there are about 50 species of crickets. Of these, the most popular are the house and the field.

Habitat Habitat

Crickets are indigenous inhabitants of the Far East and North Africa. But then they spread throughout Europe. Somewhat later they appeared in North America and South Australia. Cricket in the field prefers steppe and forest-steppe zones and mountainous European regions. In the center of Russia is most often found in the north of the country, on the border of the area.

In the Tula region, a field cricket can be found mainly in the southern strip, in Vanevsky, Kimovsky, Efremovsky, Odoyevsky, Kurkinsky and Novomoskovsk regions.

Field cricket: habitat and places of settlement

Crickets - insects are thermophilic. Live in places where the temperature reaches at least 20 degrees. At lower insects become inactive and almost completely stop eating. In villages, crickets like places near stoves in winter and go live on nature in the summer. They prefer heat, light and sun. They willingly settle in meadows and fields.

In the mountains crickets choose for life usually steppe dry slopes, where limestones are exposed or settle on adjoining wastelands and meadows. But where they get warm well. Now the crickets are more "modernized" and prefer to live not on stoves, but on livestock farms. There for them not only heat, but also a lot of food. Or they live in warm cellars, boiler houses and heating mains.

Appearance

Cricket field in size is very small. The length of the body is from 17 to 23 centimeters. Males are larger than females. Crickets have a large head and a dense body. They are mostly black in color, but they are also brown. They have short front wings. Field crickets, unlike other species of brethren, are larger. The color is darker, the hips from below and from the inside are red.

The females from behind have a thin ovipositor extended at the tip. A shin is a reddish color. Males are distinguished by the presence of a mirror on the elytra. The sound device is similar to that of a grasshopper. But it's more complicated for crickets.

These insects have long antennae and three pairs of legs. The entire body (abdomen, chest and head) is covered with a chitinous, durable cuticle. The jaws (mandibles) of crickets are quite powerful. All senses are well developed - touch, smell and sight. Thanks to the crocs of the cricket, they perfectly capture smells and taste the taste of food.

Cricket Field: Lifestyle Features

He - the only representative of insects, building a nest in which the whole adult short life lives. Crickets by nature lonely. Each individual has its own territory. If it belongs to a male, then it can tolerate the residence of several females.

Crickets live in nature in burrows up to 20 centimeters deep and 2 centimeters wide. Far from your home never go away. At the slightest risk, the cricket disappears into the hole. The entrance to it masks a bunch of grass. Crickets are very cautious and fearful, since they have a lot of enemies - small mammals, birds and lizards.

Technique of fights

When you meet with an unexpected fellow, there is always a fight. These insects protect their territory from invasion. During a duel they bite. And they try to chew on the opponent's tendrils or paws. Crickets puff their foreheads, make sharp attacks and strongly kick. True, these insects jump badly, but quickly move on their paws. Despite the fact that crickets feed on vegetarian food, the defeated enemy is eaten by the winner.

Food

In general, the cricket of the field feeds on plant food. But periodically, the diet includes other, smaller insects. Adult crickets can hunt even on small relatives or eat eggs laid by females. What feeds on the cricket field in captivity? At the maintenance of his house he eats crumbs of cheese and bread, milk, pieces of various fruits.

Reproduction

During breeding, males sit at their mink and sing songs to females. Raising the front wings, the gentleman rubs them. Due to this, a kind of love serenade in the form of a whirr is obtained. The female may not be suitable. If all the same meeting took place, then soon she lays about 30 eggs in the ground. For the entire breeding period in total - up to 500.

During mating, the cricket of the field hangs the spermatophore, similar to that of the grasshoppers, to the belly of the woman. But crickets do not have spermatophilax. When the female begins to lay eggs, she sticks her ovipositor vertically into the ground. Then closes the hole, moves to the next place, and the procedure repeats.

Larvae appear between two and four weeks. And in appearance they are similar to adult animals in miniature. The pupation stage of crickets is absent. The larvae always stay together. During growth three times molt. And then they begin to separate. Each cricket starts digging its own hole and preparing for the winter.

On the surface after winter, a young cricket field is selected in the spring, when the temperature reaches +4 degrees. The last time molting occurs, and after it insects become adults. Then a new breeding season begins.

Content

There are people who keep crickets at home in insectaria (special gardens). Basically they are made of plastic. A hundred crickets can be placed in one garden. It is important to ensure a sufficient amount of food and water, as well as maintain a comfortable temperature for these insects. The diet should include protein food. Crickets gladly eat dry food for aquarium fish - gammarus or daphnia. If the insects do not have enough protein food, they will start eating their weaker counterparts.

How to get rid of crickets

How to destroy a field cricket living at home? There are several ways for this:

• You can use a natural trap. Condensed milk is poured into a small container. Mixed with water and placed near the place where the cricket lives. The insect, attracted by the smell, jumps into the prepared syrup.
• Chemical trap. It is used indoors if there are no pets or small children in the house.
• Adhesive strips. They are placed at the windows, on the doors and walls. Insects adhere to them.
• Spray. You can use any of the insects, even "Dichlorvos". But spray such sprays should be, if the house has no children or pets.
• Some use a conventional vacuum cleaner to destroy crickets. You need to change or remove the nozzle and walk around the corners of the house. Thus, even the unborn offspring can be exterminated.

Ecology is important for the reproduction of crickets. Field cricket feeds not only on plant food, but also eats smaller brothers. And even corpses of insects, since crickets need protein. But they also cause considerable harm in their summer cottages due to their irrepressible appetite. Crickets eat any plants and their roots. Therefore, sometimes owners of dachas have to get rid of the invasion of "singers". There are several ways to do this:

• Use of complex measures - chemical and agrotechnical;
• The usual loosening of the earth helps not bad;
• The site can be treated with biochemicals "Entonem-F" or "Nemabakt";
• Establish bird houses or bird feeders on the site;
• Very well help in the struggle of snakes (these are the enemies of crickets);
• After harvesting in autumn, it is necessary to remove the site, clearing it of wood, chips and remnants of the film in order to prevent under them the wintering of crickets;
• You can use box-bait;
• Wormwood can simply be laid out between beds or watered land prepared from this herb broth;
• You can sprinkle the ground near the stems with hot hot pepper.

Cricket battles "without rules"

The aggressiveness of male crickets gave rise to an unusual gambling spectacle - battles. There is a version that they came up with in China about 1000 years ago, during the reign of Sun. But cricket battles with no less success were also conducted in Thailand and Malaysia.

For this, insects were caught in late summer. Then the male crickets were released into the mini-arena. They instantly started to fight, to the finish. The defeated person was thrown out of the arena, fled from it or was killed by an opponent. The winner was even given a certain title.

Such cricket battles were very expensive, the bets on them were very high. The remains of the winners were later kept in silver mini coffins. During life, specially hired people took care of the fighting crickets. The insects were sitting on a specially developed diet, and for colds they were given even medications. To raise the tone and morale, crickets were brought daily for 2 hours by females.

Contained fighting insects in special semi-precious houses, or in a gourd from inside a pumpkin or bamboo. Sometimes the cages were ivory or tortoiseshell. The most beautiful houses were only in the imperial palaces.

Features

Field cricket refers to an endangered species. It is noted as a rare and narrow-sighted species. In the Tula region, only 9 habitats of a field cricket were seen. This is a small species. Crickets are not at all inclined to resettlement, but if their numbers increase, especially in hot summer, then insects can scatter and settle even hundreds of meters from ordinary habitats. Since they dig their own holes, they avoid settling on arable land or in excavation sites.

The life cycle of crickets is from 90 to 120 days. But an adult insect lives only a month and a half. There are also "long-livers" who live for 7 months, but they live in the tropics. Field crickets, taking into account wintering, - from 14 to 15 months.

Cricket field sings with the help of elytra, which rubs against each other. They are tough, and during this process a beautiful trill turns out. Singing crickets can all day, often in the evenings and even at night. But at the slightest danger or anxiety they quiet down and hide in their holes.