Living in burrows underground and having powerful forelegs modified for digging, it is understandable that the Orthopteran Gryllotalpa gryllotalpais called the ‘Mole cricket’. Having a subterranean lifestyle, this is a species that was considered extinct in the UK until 2014 when a population was discovered in Hampshire’s New Forest; they can best be located by listening for the ‘song’ of the male mole cricket. The loud chirping noise he produces is amplified at a location next to the entrance chambers of his galleries so they act as sound boxes, and thus can attract females that may be at a distance from his territory.
The female cricket deposits her eggs inside a special chamber at the end of one of the tunnels. She keeps this nesting chamber clean, and the eggs protected, during the three weeks it takes before the nymphs emerge, and then continues to look after them for a further few weeks. The nymphs look like miniature versions of adults, but without wings or genitalia. They will pass through up to ten nymphal stages, during each moult their old exoskeleton is shed and they grow larger.
Mole crickets forage for food within their underground galleries feeding on roots, bulbs, and earthworms, as well as the larvae and eggs of other ground invertebrates. They are constantly digging tunnels using their strong forelegs which are covered in very thick chitin (which weight-for-weight is thought to be stronger than bone!) even forming finger-like extensions (called dactyls) that increase the digging capability.
