Crickets
Family Gryllidae

Characteristics:
* The subfamily Gryllinae includes the species Acheta domesticus, the house cricket, and Gryllus, the common field cricket.
* Bodies black, green, or brownish, flattened, with 3-segmented tarsi.
* Legs spiny.
* Wings membraneous, covering abdomen.
* Body length: 1/4-1".

Natural History:
* Habitat: Meadows, trees, forests, lawns, houses.
* Range: Crickets are found throughout the world.
* Voice: An unmistakable chirp, produced when the cricket rubs a hardened area on the upper side of its wing against a thickened vein near the base of the forewing.
* Feeds on plant material.

Connections!
* The cricket's tympanic organs can vibrate with up to 20,000 cycles per second, well beyond the sensitivity of human ears. The temperature can be determined by counting the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds and adding 40 to the number.

* The word "cricket" comes from a French word, criquer, meaning 'little creaker.' The Dutch call the insect a krekel, while in China it is known as kwo kwo.

* Cricket breeding and fighting was once a popular pastime in China. In fact, crickets are partially to blame for the decline of the South Song dynasty; the last premier, Jia Sidao, supposedly neglected important affairs of state to watch his fighting crickets!

* Perhaps our most well-known cricket is Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's version of Pinocchio. The cricket was actually created by Carlo Collodi, who wrote the original Pinocchio story.