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Triamescaptor
The New Zealand mole cricket (''Triamescaptor aotea'') is a wingless member of the mole cricket family Mole cricket, Gryllotalpidae. Endemism, Endemic to New Zealand, it lives underground and is rarely seen. It is now restricted to parts of the southern North Island. Taxonomy The mole cricket was well known to Māori people, Māori, who encountered it when cultivating garden plots and called it honi. Mole crickets collected in New Zealand were assumed to be the European species ''Gryllotalpa vulgaris'' (a synonym of ''Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa''), which has a wingless nymph that resembles the adult New Zealand species. ''Triamescaptor aotea'' was named and described by Norman Tindale in 1928 from two specimens collected in 1915 at Aramoho, Whanganui. It is the only species in its genus, and the only genus in tribe Triamescaptorini. Its closest relatives are two Australian species of ''Gryllotalpa''. ''Triamescaptor'' is sometimes incorrectly spelled "''Trimescaptor"'' in later p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mole Cricket
Mole crickets are members of the insect family Gryllotalpidae, in the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets). Mole crickets are cylindrical-bodied, fossorial insects about long as adults, with small eyes and shovel-like fore limbs highly developed for burrowing. They are present in many parts of the world and where they have arrived in new regions, may become agricultural pests. Mole crickets have three life stages: eggs, nymphs, and adults. Most of their lives in these stages are spent underground, but adults have wings and disperse in the breeding season. They vary in their diet: some species are herbivores, mainly feeding on roots; others are omnivores, including worms and grubs in their diet; and a few are largely predatory. Male mole crickets have an exceptionally loud song; they sing from a burrow that opens out into the air in the shape of an exponential horn. The song is an almost pure tone, modulated into chirps. It is used to attract females, eithe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
