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| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 10:29:56 PM |
| Subject: What is this insect? | post id: 423441 |
| These insects are moderately common in coastal Queensland. We used to call them toe-biters, but I know that term usually refers to various water bugs that are nothing like this. It looks a lot like an earwig, but I don't think it can be a kind of earwig: they have forceps on the back. This insect has large front legs, with small spikes. These can give an unpleasant but harmless nip to the foot of a person (hence the slang term toe-biter). The other legs also have small spikes. The antennae are about a centimetre long. The abdomen slenders to a point, and there are two, uh, spiky things that also extend backwards from the abdomen. http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/299/insect.jpg So what is the systematic name? What are its common names? | |
| From: Teleost ® | 18/06/2009 10:53:12 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423442 |
| It's a Mole cricket. They're quite common but aren't seen too often as they generally live underground. Family Gryllotalpidae. === there are two, uh, spiky things that also extend backwards from the abdomen. === Cerci would be the technical term :) | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:29:58 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423444 |
| Thank you. | |
| From: Teleost ® | 18/06/2009 11:37:11 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423445 |
| No worries. | |
| From: neomyrtus ® | 18/06/2009 11:39:06 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423446 |
| === there are two, uh, spiky things that also extend backwards from the abdomen. Its a boy!!! If you had two abdominal cerci plus an enlarged, protruding ovipositor and you'd have a girl. | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:42:15 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423447 |
| Going by your description, I think it _is_ a girl, then, neomyrtus, and what I have described as the slender tapering to a point of the abdomen is the ovipositor. | |
| From: neomyrtus ® | 18/06/2009 11:43:01 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423448 |
| of course I posted before I checked. Oddly enough for crickets, the female mole crickets lack an ovipositor. How extraordinary. http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/natscience/invertebrates/documents/Molecrickets.pdf | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:45:48 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423449 |
| You can see it better in the image on the left rather than the right image. The rear is downwards. The two cerci are to the left and the ovipositor to the right, perhaps. | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:47:42 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423450 |
| Well then I guess it is not an ovipositor after all... | |
| From: neomyrtus ® | 18/06/2009 11:47:45 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423451 |
| Sorry DV. I can't see much on the image - it is too fuzzy and I have wicked eye strain and a pounding headache.. anyway - noice find. Keep up the good work. | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:49:09 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423452 |
| Yes, it is a bit fuzzy. | |
| From: DV ® | 18/06/2009 11:50:09 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423453 |
| http://www.ansarov.com/index.php#mi=2&pt=1&pi=10000&s=21&p=8&a=0&at=0 Now THIS is a good picture of a mole cricket. | |
| From: binjy ® | 19/06/2009 8:10:00 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423459 |
| I LOVE mole crickets :) | |
| From: geoff d ® | 19/06/2009 8:13:22 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423460 |
| > I LOVE mole crickets :) Not if they're the critters that make piles of squishy dirt on my lawn in the early mornings. | |
| From: binjy ® | 19/06/2009 8:15:26 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423462 |
| Not if they're the critters that make piles of squishy dirt on my lawn in the early mornings. ````````````` yeah- but they aren't depositing dirt with malice :P | |
| From: Ned2 ® | 19/06/2009 10:43:31 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423468 |
| I LOVE mole crickets :)>> Here's one I prepared earlier. http://www.users.on.net/~njk517/Mole-Cricket.jpg :) | |
| From: mimzin ® | 19/06/2009 10:51:39 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423469 |
| mole cricket - lovely critter | |
| From: booshkie ® | 19/06/2009 11:54:57 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423471 |
| Let's start the Mole Cricket Appreciation Society! | |
| From: roughbarked ® | 19/06/2009 12:27:42 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423473 |
| Let's start the Mole Cricket Appreciation Society! > I was the only member in my street in 1956 and it stayed that way until 1966, then there were two of us.. | |
| From: mimzin ® | 19/06/2009 12:51:16 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423476 |
| I'll join - but I'm not in your street | |
| From: roughbarked ® | 19/06/2009 1:02:01 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423478 |
| but I'm not in your street >>>>>>> I've long since moved from that street. ;) | |
| From: Woollybutt ® | 19/06/2009 1:02:07 PM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423479 |
| ------------------- Let's start the Mole Cricket Appreciation Society! --------------------- GeoffD can be president. | |
| From: robadob ® | 21/06/2009 9:59:23 AM |
| Subject: re: What is this insect? | post id: 423693 |
| looks like a sand groper | |