Crickets: cannibalism, trait breeding, individualism, and questions on instincts

[Elytra and Antenna]

Notice the nymphs are still pretty much the same color as normal house crickets (field cricket nymphs are jet black).

 

[Farom]

Those are some wicked looking crickets. Its interesting how they dont turn black until the final molt.

 

[dtknow]

MantidAssasins: How long did it take for you to stabilize this mutation? I'm assuming you found one black one in a shipment of crickets?

I think if someone isolated a "curly winged" form of cricket that was thus unable to chirp and it still bred well they could get some business from people who are tired of all the noise they make.

 

[heyjeyniceid]

I dont know if anyone else has see this, but occasionally Ill come across what I have named a "Bull" cricket. They are about 30% larger than average and have a massive bulbous head. Ive seen one from a petstore and one in a grocery store.

they are impressive as far as crickets go. I have no idea if they behave any differently than normal circkets.

 

[Normski2020uk]

MantidAssasins: How long did it take for you to stabilize this mutation? I'm assuming you found one black one in a shipment of crickets?

I think if someone isolated a "curly winged" form of cricket that was thus unable to chirp and it still bred well they could get some business from people who are tired of all the noise they make.

This has been done, on brown crickets, you can by the "silent crickest" from www.livefoodsbypost.co.uk. never tryed them, and i breed my own black field crickets. Have to admit when you have a lot in it gets a bit noisy. My crickets doe also exibit canabalistic natures. I have witnessed 1 particulary large female attack and eat smaller crickes. She only tends to eat legs, then leave them for the others. I have also witnessed what i can only guess as crickest diging up eggs. I put a tub of ssand in so i can gather eggs, then incubate them. Not one cricket will touch the sand until eggs are layed, then males will start digging. I breed these for a food sourse for my Scorpions, but i find them just as fasinating as my Scorps. and i offer them just as much care as i do my Scorps.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

That site doesn't say they have a special quiet strain -- you sure they don't just pick out the males??
It's not that easy to make new strains because the mutation you want must exist and then you have to be lucky enough to find it.

Isolating the hypermelanistic form took less than a dozen generations but finding an individual with the trait is the hard part.

This has been done, on brown crickets, you can by the "silent crickest" from www.livefoodsbypost.co.uk. never tryed them, and i breed my own black field crickets. Have to admit when you have a lot in it gets a bit noisy. My crickets doe also exibit canabalistic natures. I have witnessed 1 particulary large female attack and eat smaller crickes. She only tends to eat legs, then leave them for the others. I have also witnessed what i can only guess as crickest diging up eggs. I put a tub of ssand in so i can gather eggs, then incubate them. Not one cricket will touch the sand until eggs are layed, then males will start digging. I breed these for a food sourse for my Scorpions, but i find them just as fasinating as my Scorps. and i offer them just as much care as i do my Scorps.

 

[Normski2020uk]

I do not know? They advertise silent brow crickets!! I assume they sell silent brown crickets, and as they sell in bulk of 500+, i would assume they do not sepertate males from females. But who knows, like i said i have not actually purchased any. Has any one else???

 

[Vermis]

The 'silent crickets' are a different species (Gryllus assimilis), that supposedly don't chirp as loudly as house/brown crickets (Acheta domestica) or field/black crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus).
It's been a while since I bought any, but G. assimilis do look similar to A. domestica, due to coloration. Though IIRC they're also sometimes known as grey crickets.
Global livefood has better pics.

Nice crix, MA.