crazy cricket ID

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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was tracking crickets by sound.

the sound was a dull trill drumming, so i thought i was tracking jerusalems.
then i found one, and at first thought it WAS a jerusalem, It was robust, and bitey. but it has a saddle-like thorax that overlaps the head. is black, and has a strange defensive posture. if you approach, it flips itself over and streaches its legs out, if you get closet is grabs at you with its legs. but only seems to try a bite if you restrain it.

I cant find anything about such crickets.

They were found in the okanagan valley, on a north facing slope with pine trees.

as a general rule, things like scorpions and jerusalmem crickets are all on south slopes.
 
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Tleilaxu

Arachnoprince
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Looks like a type of cave cricket, the snow tree crickets look really cool though!
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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well, it has awfully short jumping legs for a cave cricket.
they are totally under the dirt, hardly any emergence at all, i beleive a mormon cricket would be more likely to travel about.

and if its a katydid, its certainly the most anomalous of its ilk.

ive been going through cricket references all night, and im not seeing anything quite matching this one
 

Tunedbeat

Arachnolord
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I've never seen one of those, looks abit like a camel cricket.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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not close up. it moves around very slowly for a cricket.
it sorta lumbers along. it can hop but not very far.

ive done alot of checking at this point and cant find any trace of this particular cricket on the net except for one picturetaken in the okanagan by someone who thought this was a cave cricket too.

but ive looked at alot of pics of cave crickets and theres nothing out there representing anything as chunky and goofy as this.
 

Herp13

Arachnoknight
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You should tell some kind of wildlife agency bout your find(maybe a new species!). Good luck.
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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I'd guess a pictured Jerusalem Cricket, S. pictus though it could be a different species.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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yeah, such a personality too, generally slow and goofy, but is ready for a fight. looks real funny when it flips over on its back and spreads those chubby legs out.

im trying to narrow it down to familty, and it seems most like a member of Anostostomatidae. the family that has new zeland wetas and african parktown prawns. its a large, wingless cricket, closer related to jerusalem crickets than "true" crickets. not very much like Rhaphidophoridae (cave crickets) which have large hopping legs and extra-long antennae.
it has a large head with huge jaws, and spiny legs which it flicks out in self defence.

i cannot find any reference to this family occuring in north america tho.
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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im trying to narrow it down to familty, and it seems most like a member of Anostostomatidae. i cannot find any reference to this family occuring in north america tho.
Did you miss the post above? S. pictus is a species of Jerusalem cricket.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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I don't see how thats relivant here. Im seeing something closer to the "king" cricket ilk. thats closer to jerusalem crickets than "true crickets.

s.pictus doesn't really apply here. the specimin is definately NOT s. pictus or ANY of the Stenopelmatus genus, so, perhaps under the Stenopelmatoidea superfamily, but not the Stenopelmatidae family

the morphology just screams ground weta. (Hemiandrus genus) but thats very presumptuous. I would think at least, the Anostostomatidae family is in the right direction.

unless of course this cricket is in some obscure family that few enough make reference to. theres several families in the superfamily that i can find NO credible photos of for comparison.

some of the following for ex.

Mimnermidae
Cooloolidae
Lezinidae

now, i found one pic of a cricket in the genus "Lezina", family "Lezinidae" and it looks ALOT like my specimine..

So next i suppose i will be looking into the Lezinidae family.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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SOLVED!

was that ever the right track!

it was in another superfamily.

the species is Cyphoderris monstrosa
the "great grig"

its a female. apparently the male has wings :p

Family Prophalangopsidae - Hump-winged Crickets family formerly known as Haglidae

under the superfamily Hagloidea.

so there it is, i was on the right track, but the wrong train.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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oh, and arachnocat was closest with the "katydid" It is most closely related to katydids.
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
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Sorry, I thought you didn't realize there were different looking Jerusalem crickets. Good catch on the ID. I only have two books with that species detailed and both depict a male which has wings similar to a house cricket. Of course neither mention the female being wingless. The max size on Cyphoderris monstrosa is only 25mm, that female is that small?
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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i think a little longer, but the size is in the girth.
no ovipositor visable either, i THOUGHT at first it was a male.
 

mitchnast

Arachnobaron
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also, the wings differ from a house cricket in that they are thick and fleashy.

during mating, the female EATS the males wings, and then consumes the outflow from the wound. that pretty much takes the male out of the breeding population. the jealous type
 
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