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Sticker of Southern mole cricket
Bug card No. 4027 of 4,939

Southern mole cricket

Neoscapteriscus borellii
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The southern mole cricket is a cricket that digs like a little mole. Its front legs are strong digging tools with two sharp claws and a blade. It lives in tunnels in sandy soil and comes from South America.

Lives in
South America, and the southern United States since about 1900, in sandy lawns and fields
Length
3 cm (1.2 in)
Top speed
about 3.7 km/h (2.3 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It cannot sting.
What does it eat?
Unlike many of its cousins, which eat plants, it mostly hunts other small animals in the soil.
For real!Photo of Southern mole cricket
Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Southern mole cricket about 3 cm long (1.2 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 5 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1 secondsmoves 34 times its own body length every second

How big is Southern mole cricket compared to YOU?

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How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Only the boys sing. They trill with a low buzzing song, usually in the two hours after sunset.

2

It can fly, because its back wings are longer than its body.

3

In the United States its digging loosens the soil, so lawns, fields and golf courses can get damaged.

4

In South America its natural enemies keep it in check, so scientists brought some of those enemies to Florida to help.

5

Babies hatched in autumn spend the winter in the ground as big youngsters.

you asked

Most asked questions about Southern mole cricket

?Is the southern mole cricket dangerous?

No. It cannot sting and is harmless to people, but it can damage lawns by digging.

?What does the southern mole cricket eat?

Mostly other small animals that live in the soil.

?How big is the southern mole cricket?

It grows to about 3 centimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Neoscapteriscus borellii
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Gryllotalpidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Gryllotalpidae
Lives on
South America, North America

Where the facts come from

  1. Neoscapteriscus borellii (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Judy Gallagher. CC BY 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.

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