Grylloidea is the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s, in the order

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grassho ...

, known as crickets. It includes the " true crickets", scaly crickets, wood crickets and other families, some only known from fossils. Grylloidea dates from the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

period and contains about 3,700 known living species in some 528 genera, as well as 43 extinct species and 27 extinct genera.

Characteristics

The features which distinguish crickets in the superfamily Grylloidea from other Ensiferans are long, thread-like antennae, three tarsal segments, slender tactile cerci at the tip of the abdomen and bulbous sensory bristles on the cerci. They are the only insects to share this combination of characteristics. The term cricket is popularly used for any cricket-like insect in the order Ensifera, being applied to the ant crickets, bush crickets (

Tettigoniidae Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, t ...

Jerusalem cricket Jerusalem crickets (or potato bugs) are a group of large, flightless insects in the genera ''Ammopelmatus'' and ''Stenopelmatus'', together comprising the tribe Stenopelmatini. The former genus is native to the western United States and parts ...

s (''Stenopelmatus''),

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 ...

s, camel crickets and cave crickets (

Rhaphidophoridae The orthopteran family Rhaphidophoridae of the suborder Ensifera has a worldwide distribution. Common names for these insects include cave wētā, cave crickets, camelback crickets, camel crickets, Hogan bugs, spider crickets (sometimes shortene ...

) and

wētā Wētā (also spelt weta) is the common name for a group of about 100 insect species in the families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae endemic to New Zealand. They are giant flightless crickets, and some are among the heaviest insects in th ...

(

Anostostomatidae Anostostomatidae is a family of insects in the order Orthoptera, widely distributed in the southern hemisphere. It is named Mimnermidae or Henicidae in some taxonomies, and common names include ''king crickets'' in South Africa and ''wētā'' i ...

), and the relatives of these. All these insects have four tarsal segments and are probably more closely related to each other than they are to the true crickets, Gryllidae. The body is cylindrical in most Grylloideans, but in some it is oval. The antennae are long and threadlike, except in the family

Gryllotalpidae 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 ...

in which they are much shorter and brush-like. The

pronotum The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum (ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ea ...

is unkeeled and the sternal plates are flat, unadorned with flaps or spines. The tarsus has three segments and the

tibia The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

of the front leg bears the sound-detecting

tympanal organ A tympanal organ (or tympanic organ) is a hearing organ in insects, consisting of a membrane ( tympanum) stretched across a frame backed by an air sac and associated sensory neurons. Sounds vibrate the membrane, and the vibrations are sensed by ...

s. The forewing of males bears the stridulatory organ, with a sound being created when a file on one wing is rubbed by a scraper on the other. There are two cerci at the tip of the abdomen and there is no stylus on the subgenital plate.

Classification

The following

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

are included in this superfamily. * Baissogryllidae Gorochov, 1985 † *

Gryllidae The family ''Gryllidae'' contains the subfamilies and genera which entomologists now term true crickets. Having long, whip-like antennae, they belong to the Orthopteran suborder Ensifera, which has been greatly reduced in the last 100 years (''e ...

Laicharting, 1781 – true crickets *

Mogoplistidae Mogoplistidae is a family of scaly crickets within the superfamily Grylloidea. Considered to be monophyletic, a sister taxon to the Gryllidae crickets. This family consists of more than 370 species worldwide; 20 species in 4 genera occur in North ...

Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1873 – scaly crickets *

Phalangopsidae The Phalangopsidae are a recently reconstituted family of crickets (Orthoptera: Ensifera), based on the type genus '' Phalangopsis'' Serville, 1831 from South America. Priority for family-group names based on this genus dates from Blanchard's "' ...

Blanchard, 1845 – 'spider crickets' and relatives - mostly southern hemisphere *† Protogryllidae Zeuner, 1937 (West-central Asia) *

Trigonidiidae The Trigonidiidae are a family of crickets: Grylloidea consisting of two subfamilies: * Subfamily Nemobiinae Saussure, 1877 – wood crickets or ground crickets * Subfamily Trigonidiinae Trigonidiinae is a subfamily of insects in the order ...

Saussure, 1874 (World-wide) ** subfamily

Nemobiinae Nemobiinae is a subfamily of the newly constituted Trigonidiidae, one of the cricket families. The type genus is '' Nemobius'', which includes the wood cricket, but members of this subfamily may also be known as ground crickets or "pygmy field ...

Saussure, 1877 (includes wood crickets) ** subfamily

Trigonidiinae Trigonidiinae is a subfamily of insects in the order Orthoptera, suborder Ensifera, based on the type genus '' Trigonidium''. They are often referred to as sword-tail crickets, winged bush crickets or trigs. Tribes and Genera The ''Orthopte ...

Saussure, 1874 ('sword-tail crickets', trigs) * unplaced subfamily

Pteroplistinae The Pteroplistinae comprise a subfamily of crickets (currently unplaced in any family), in the superfamily Grylloidea Grylloidea is the superfamily of insects, in the order Orthoptera, known as crickets. It includes the " true crickets", scal ...

Chopard, 1936 (tropical Asia)

Excluded families

The following have now be placed as the separate superfamily Gryllotalpoidea.''Orthoptera Species File'' Gryllotalpoidea (Version 5.0/5.0: retrieved 22 December 2018)
/ref> *

Leach, 1815 – mole crickets *

Myrmecophilidae The Myrmecophilidae or ant-loving crickets are rarely encountered relatives of mole crickets, and are obligate inquilines within ant nests. They are very small, wingless, and flattened, so resemble small cockroach nymphs. The few genera contain fe ...

Saussure, 1874 - ant crickets.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q609392 Insect superfamilies Ensifera Carnian first appearances Extant Late Triassic first appearances