Jersey Bug
Coolest Cricket!
This cricket has a very interesting lifestyle. It lives in an colonies tricking the ants into thinking it is one of them, and feeds on the ant's eggs and stored food. It even tricks the ants into feeding it! (Ants feed each other by throwing up a droplet of food and then another ant eats it.) I found at least 5 of them under a large piece of wood that was full of carpenter ants. I'm thinking that the oriental cockroaches that I've seen under logs with ants in the woods near me in the past were actually these guys, because they look and behave exactly like one, they don't hop often and run around really quickly. Scroll down for more closeups!
Eastern Ant Cricket
Myrmecophilus pergandei
Coolest Cricket!
This cricket has a very interesting lifestyle. It lives in an colonies tricking the ants into thinking it is one of them, and feeds on the ant's eggs and stored food. It even tricks the ants into feeding it! (Ants feed each other by throwing up a droplet of food and then another ant eats it.) I found at least 5 of them under a large piece of wood that was full of carpenter ants. I'm thinking that the oriental cockroaches that I've seen under logs with ants in the woods near me in the past were actually these guys, because they look and behave exactly like one, they don't hop often and run around really quickly. Scroll down for more closeups!
Eastern Ant Cricket
Myrmecophilus pergandei