Species group · Insects

Crickets

WAnimals has 3 species of cricket, spread across 2 families (Gryllidae, Rhaphidophoridae).

3 species
2 families
49 countries
128 parks
Length
1.7 cm – 21 cm
Lifespan
1 years

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 3.

All 3 species of crickets on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Conservation status

2 Not Evaluated1 Least Concern

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

See the global conservation status

Where they live

Recorded in 49 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

Where to see them

Did you know…

  • It eats plants, fruit, seeds and insects, including eggs, larvae and the remains of other animals.

    From Field Cricket

  • It digs individual burrows in dry grassland, heath and bare ground across Europe.

    From Field Cricket

  • In the United Kingdom it was once reckoned the country's most threatened cricket, down to barely 100 individuals in a single Sussex village in the 1990s.

    From Field Cricket

  • It has neither wings nor sound-producing organs: unlike house crickets it does not sing, because in the total darkness underground sound would be no use for recognising its own kind.

    From Cave Cricket

  • Nor does it have tympana: it navigates by its extremely long antennae, which sweep the ground in the dark like canes.

    From Cave Cricket

  • It jumps explosively and erratically when disturbed, with no control over direction, which lets it escape a predator in a confined space.

    From Cave Cricket

  • Only the male sings, rubbing a scraper on one wing against a file on the other; the rate of the song speeds up with temperature so regularly that it can be used to estimate it.

    From House Cricket

  • Its ears are not on its head but on its front legs, in the form of two tympanic membranes just below the knee.

    From House Cricket

Ecosystems

See every species group · Explore the species one by one