Sandgropers are wholly subterranean

apterous Aptery is the anatomical condition of an animal completely lacking any kind of wings. An animal with this condition is said to be apterous. Most animal species belong to and are phylogenetic descendants of apterous taxa. These groups are said to ...

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 ...

s of the family Cylindrachetidae that may grow up to 7 cm (3 in) long. Three genera are currently recognised: '' Cylindracheta'', '' Cylindraustralia'' and '' Cylindroryctes''. Like many subterranean animals, little is known about their habits and diet, but

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

n farmers have blamed them for substantial crop losses. Sandgroper2

Sandgropers were once thought to be degenerate

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, but they are now known to be more closely related to pygmy mole crickets, in the

Caelifera The Caelifera are a suborder of orthopteran insects. They include the grasshoppers and grasshopper-like insects, as well as other superfamilies classified with them: the ground-hoppers (Tetrigoidea) and pygmy mole crickets ( Tridactyloidea). ...

, which includes

grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

. Although widely believed to be herbivorous, some have been found with animal remains in their gut.

Range

* Australia: **''Cylindracheta'' is found only in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...

**''Cylindraustralia'' widely except in the south-east and

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

***six species have been recorded in

of which five are believed to be endemic to that state. ''C. kochii'' and ''C. tindalei'' are found in the

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

region. *

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; id, Papua, or , historically ) is the world's second-largest island with an area of . Located in Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is separated from Australia by the wide Torr ...

: **''Cylindraustralia'' *

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

: **''Cylindroryctes''

Popular culture

In the 1970s, television station TVW Channel 7 in Perth, Western Australia released a stuffed toy sandgroper for sale named "Sunny The Sandgroper", with proceeds going towards

Telethon A telethon (a portmanteau of "television" and "marathon") is a televised fundraising event that lasts many hours or even days, the purpose of which is to raise money for a charitable, political or other purportedly worthy cause. Most telethons f ...

. "Sunny Sandgroper" was then used as a regular character, along with Fat Cat and Percy P Penguin, in TVW-7's ''Earlybirds'' morning children's show. Western Australians have been known colloquially as sandgropers, with references to the name being found as early as the 1890s.

References

* * Insects of Australia Taxa named by Ermanno Giglio-Tos Caelifera {{caelifera-stub