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Sticker of African mole cricket
Bug card No. 0025 of 4,939

African mole cricket

Gryllotalpa africana
Eats: A bit of everythingGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The African mole cricket lives underground like a little mole. It digs tunnels with its strong front legs. It only comes up at night, and it can even fly.

Lives in
Africa, with some living in Asia and southern Europe
Top speed
about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting. If you find one, put it gently back on the soil.
What does it eat?
It eats plant roots, and also grubs and other insects it finds underground.
For real!Photo of African mole cricket
Picture by Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE. CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Males sing to call females with a chirping song.

2

It flies when it moves to a new place or when a female goes looking for a male.

3

Some kinds of it look exactly alike and can only be told apart by their songs.

4

It is small for a mole cricket.

you asked

Most asked questions about African mole cricket

?What does the African mole cricket eat?

Plant roots, grubs and other small insects under the ground.

?Can mole crickets fly?

Yes. It flies at night when it moves to a new home or looks for a mate.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Gryllotalpa africana
Named by
Palisot de Beauvois, 1805
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Gryllotalpidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Gryllotalpidae
Lives on
Africa, Asia, Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Gryllotalpa africana (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 Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE. 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.

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