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Sticker of Fall field cricket
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Fall field cricket

Gryllus pennsylvanicus

The fall field cricket is a shiny black or dark brown cricket with feelers longer than its body. On late summer nights the males sing a cheerful chirp, chirp, chirp. It lives in grassy places all over much of North America.

Lives in
Much of North America, from southern Canada to northern Mexico, in fields, lawns and grassy places
Length
1.5 to 2.5 cm (0.59 to 0.98 in)
Top speed
about 3.4 km/h (2.1 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting, and it just hops away if you come close.
What does it eat?
It eats almost anything: seeds, plants and also small insects and other little animals.
For real!Photo of Fall field cricket
Picture by Kevinjudge. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Fall field cricket about 2.5 cm long (0.98 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.1 secondsmoves 38 times its own body length every second

How big is Fall field cricket compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The male sings by rubbing his front wings together, about two or three chirps every second.

2

He sings at the door of his burrow or from a crack in the ground, and dives inside if he gets scared.

3

Female crickets seem to like the songs of older males best.

4

A female can lay more than 400 eggs in her life. She pokes them into the soil.

5

When winter comes, some crickets sneak into houses to stay warm.

you asked

Most asked questions about Fall field cricket

?Why do crickets chirp at night?

The males chirp to call females. They sing mostly at night.

?What does the fall field cricket eat?

It eats seeds and plants, and also small insects.

?Do field crickets bite?

They are harmless to people and hop away rather than fight.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Gryllus pennsylvanicus
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Gryllidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Gryllidae
Lives on
North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Gryllus pennsylvanicus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Kevinjudge. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

More from the same group: Grasshoppers and crickets

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows