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365 Urban species. #282: Camel cricket
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urbpan. I found this camel cricket (and many others) under a makeshift bed, used by homeless people in a wooded section of Olmsted Park, in Boston.Urban species #282: Camel cricket Ceuthophilus spp.
Camel crickets are also sometimes called "cave crickets," and while there are some specialized species that inhabit only caves, most of these insects have more general habits. They are nocturnal and are found gathering in cool dark places, sometimes in surprising numbers. Apparently they are occasionally mistaken for spiders, with their long slender appendages and lack of wings. Their shiny, humped bodies and long antennae should put that misidentification to rest, if you haven't already flattened them. Like many other insects called crickets (though, evolutionarily they are more closely related to katydids) camel crickets are omnivorous, feeding on the carcasses of other insects and decaying plant matter. They are sometimes considered pests, mainly because they will enter homes and basements for shelter, but they are not destructive animals. They are not especially well-studied creatures, and identification to species is difficult and rare, with most authorities either leaving the designation blank, or arbitrarily settling on C. maculatus (an apparently common and cosmopolitan species.)
Long hind legs can be a liability, but camel crickets can make do with just one, if a predator takes the other.
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phew! it's just a cricket!
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I was (am still in the process of) doing a survey of wildlife in the wooded part of the park. I was looking for amphibians, specifically.
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Found in northwest NJ last year.
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Thanks for posting a picture!
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Here's a photo my sister took a few years back of me, completely failing to notice the cave crickets in Mammoth Cave:
(And no, I'm not actually leaning my elbows on the cave - it's the angles! Honest!)
Zen Koan...
Re: Zen Koan...
Answer #1: Just like a normal cricket. Most true crickets generate their chirping noises by rubbing their wings together, not by rubbing their legs against the wings.
Answer #2: Depends on the leg. Some of the orthopterans that chirp, particularly grasshoppers, have a strong preference for using one leg as the scraper. However, a one-legged grasshopper has a lot of balance problems, so they don't chirp very well.
(takes off pedantry hat)
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Back when I lived in my first apartment we were overrun by these guys (it was a basement apartment). They'd jump on me while I slept. It was a nightmare. (the ones we had were like the ones your friend posted above...they were HUGE with brown stripes and looked more spider-like than cricket.)
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Keen little cricket! Over here, our most common crickets are Tiger Crickets, little fellers originally from Pakistan, which make a pleasant trill behind your wallpaper in the early hours of the morning, and King Crickets, 4-inch omnivores that will happily fang your finger if you pick them up, and have legs that are strong enough to kick your hand away if you persist...
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I mostly don't mind them and move them outdoors where we have a little urban wilderness but when you wake up with one on your pillow...it's a bit much. Can't seem to get rid of them, though.
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cricket
(Anonymous) 2007-09-11 02:15 am (UTC)(link)EW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Anonymous) 2007-10-17 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)EW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tiger crickets
(Anonymous) 2009-06-01 07:14 pm (UTC)(link)Camel Cricket
(Anonymous) 2010-08-19 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)