Desert cricket
Melanogryllus desertus
The desert cricket is a dark field cricket, even though most of them do not live in deserts at all. It lives in fields across southern and eastern Europe and into Asia. Like other crickets, it can chirp.
Lives in
Southern and eastern Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan and north-western China
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting, so you can listen to it sing.
What does it eat?
Like other field crickets, it nibbles plants and also eats small bits of other animals.
How fast is it?
Desert cricket about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its other English name is the lesser field cricket.
2
It lives in a very long row of countries, from Portugal and Spain all the way to Kazakhstan and western China.
3
Male crickets sing by rubbing their wings together.
you asked
Most asked questions about Desert cricket
?Does the desert cricket live in deserts?
Not really. It mostly lives in fields across southern and eastern Europe and Asia.
?How do crickets chirp?
The males rub their wings together to make the sound.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Melanogryllus desertus
- Group
- Grasshoppers and crickets
- Family
- Gryllidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Orthoptera > Gryllidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
- Also known as
- Lesser field cricket
Where the facts come from
- Melanogryllus desertus (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this 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.
Bug Wiki honey jar For grown-ups: Bug Wiki is free, with no ads and no tracking. A small tip helps keep it online.Leave a tip
Desert locust
House cricket
Parktown prawn
Eastern lubber grasshopper
Australian plague locust
Mormon cricket
Cream-spot tiger
Bordered patch
Black-and-gold bumble bee
Cabbage fly
Box bug
Raspberry beetle.jpg){kind=link}