When it comes to finding the world’s most [insert adjective] insect, one usually needs to go to some remote, usually tropical location. But it just happens that the world’s smallest cricket lives right around the corner from my house. The Eastern ant cricket (Myrmecophilus pergandei) is a remarkable and highly adaptable little creature. These insects…
Category: Insects
Red-headed Bush Cricket, part 2
Exactly one month ago I saw my first Red-headed Bush Cricket, also known as the Handsome Trig. It was a tiny nymph, but it already carried its signature large mandibular palps, waving them like crazy. Yesterday, while in Estabrook Woods, MA, I heard a cricket call that I did not recognize. After my wife and…
My local bioblitz
During the last few days I was supposed to be a member of a team of photographers and scientists, whose job was to document the biodiversity of animals and plants of the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. This event, organized and sponsored by the National Park Service and National Geographic Society, aims to bring…
Galapagos: The lovely orthopterans
Considering the fact that the archipelago is situated right on the equator, the insect fauna of the Galapagos is shockingly small, with only about 1,500 recorded species. Of these a large proportion is endemic, and additional 400+ introduced species were also recorded at least once. Although I went to the Galapagos mainly to see marine…
When a bumblebee is not a bumblebee
Yesterday afternoon my wife called me and pointed out a large insect crawling on the lawn. “Look,” she said, “this is the largest bumblebee I have ever seen.” The insect indeed looked like a big bumblebee as it slowly buzzed, trying to take off. But when I looked closely I immediately realized that it was…
Red-headed Bush Cricket
Even a simple dog walk can turn into a voyage of discovery. Last weekend, when letting my dogs chase chipmunks in Estabrook Woods, I found this little gem of a cricket, a species I had never seen before. It was a nymph of a Red-headed Bush Cricket (Phyllopalpus pulchellus), also known as the Handsome Trig…
The Smaller Majority 