Mole Cricket

• The male sings from a burrow he digs himself in the shape of a double horn, whose geometry amplifies the sound so effectively that his call carries more than a kilometre.
• Its front legs are a case of perfect convergent evolution with those of the mole: two entirely unrelated lineages that have arrived at the same tool.
• It has disappeared from much of Europe through agricultural intensification and the draining of wet meadows, and is protected in several countries.
• Its front legs are transformed into toothed shovels, very like a mole's, and it is a classic case of evolutionary convergence: two entirely unrelated animals solving the problem of digging in the same way.
• It builds an amplifier. The male digs a burrow shaped like a double horn, with two flared openings towards the surface, and sings from the exact spot where the geometry resonates best. The design turns his stridulation into a trill that can be heard more than a kilometre away.
• It is a much-cited case of acoustic niche construction: the horn's efficiency depends on its shape and size, and the cricket tunes it by singing and modifying the tunnel until the volume is maximised.
• It swims, flies and digs: it is one of the few insects capable of all three.
• The female cares for her clutch, something uncommon among orthopterans: she watches over the eggs in an underground chamber and keeps them clean.
• Its populations have fallen sharply in western Europe, and in the United Kingdom it is practically extinct.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat & environment

Damp, soft, rich soils of vegetable plots, meadows and riverbanks

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gryllotalpa_gryllotalpa

Best time: Spring, when the males sing at dusk from their burrows