Crickets - and a Katydid - in the House and the Classroom, 2019

It’s becoming an annual tradition for me – a blog post about what I’ve learned from the crickets that I bring home at the end of the season each year.

Our cat, Dmitri, was so delighted with his beloved Spring Field Cricket last year and his subsequent Fall Field Cricket that I needed to find at least a Fall Field Cricket for him in 2019. 

 

 Dmitri with his 2018 Spring Field Cricket, Lincoln.

Field crickets are his favorites because they’re larger than ground crickets, they rustle around in their leaves, and they often come out of hiding both to sing and to explore. My success guaranteed another excellent year from Dmitri’s point of view.  

But the Fall Field Cricket did not have a name until the day I brought him to visit my Cleveland Institute of Music theory classes.

I placed him on a music stand at the front of the classroom where students could see and hear him – they could even watch how he created his songs with his wings. They could also observe his behavior since I create miniature habitats for crickets based on where they’re found in the wild.

But he needed a name, they thought. The 8:25 class proclaimed his name would be Frederick. Students in the 9:30 class declared that Frederick was an absolutely inadequate choice and that his name should be Regulus. Some of the 10:35 class members responded that Regulus was ridiculous.

He became Frederick Regulus. 

Frederick wasn't the only cricket to travel to class. I brought a tiny Handsome Trig in a little singing cage and he, too, sang from the music stand through all three consecutive classes. (This cricket did have a name: Phil, as in Phyllopalpus puchellus.)

My students were astonished by how loud he was! They were intrigued and impressed, though some also hoped that he wouldn’t be back during the quiz scheduled for the following day. 

Both crickets were part of the in-class “Cricket of the Week” presentations I did for my students this fall. Other Cricket of the Week presentations were photos and recordings from my field guide and only took about 5 minutes of class time. The focus was on singing insects that they could hear in Cleveland’s University Circle outside their classes and dorms.

Back to the dining room…

I learned a little more about creating Handsome Trig mini-habitats in their little singing cages. In addition to having a little bottle cap of cricket food, water cubes, a slice of apple, a slice of grape, and a piece of lettuce, they really appreciated the addition of one more item:

A leaf – preferably one that would curl up as it dried. Why? That’s where they prefer to sing in the wild. They don’t stand on an exposed stage, displaying for hungry Chickadees to eat. No, the males are on the underside of leaves or in curled up leaves where they are concealed.

Once I realized how much the Handsome Trigs delighted in this addition, our trigs were never without an appropriate leaf or two.

I’ve found that ground crickets very much like to have some grass and a small pile of leaves in which to hide. 

Surprisingly, they also very much appreciate a small rock for a perch and perhaps a little piece of wood. Those rock perches were so popular! Almost all our ground crickets used them for singing and for basking in the late autumn sun.

But what about the sound of their songs? I can observe crickets very well in those plastic cages but listening to them is more rewarding in the screened lid terrariums. Mesh insect cages are a significant improvement over both of these options, but visual observation is diminished. I think I’ll save the mesh cages for the tiniest ground crickets that spend most of their time under their leaves.

My most rewarding change was introducing caterpillar/butterfly cages for the tree crickets. I’ve used stem holders for vegetation in terrariums, but I can now add more height for their plants. My goal is to create a lifelike habitat that provides good singing perches and to enable opportunities for observing their behavior and this worked splendidly!

Forbes's Tree Cricket singing in a blackberry leaf in a mesh butterfly/caterpillar cage. Forbes's and Black-horned Tree Crickets primarily stay near the tops of the plants, but they also travel from the ceiling to the floor to eat dry cricket food, water cubes, and lettuce.

 

And our Clicker Round-winged Katydid from my October 21st post? He lived in a terrarium setting until the frightening evening when I accidentally caught the edge of it and it crashed to the floor. It shattered! I was horrified! Surely, Clicker had perished! But no - he was still clinging, uninjured, to a leaf stem on the dining room floor, surrounded by shards of glass.

That’s when I moved him into a mesh butterfly cage as well, and he immediately perceived this habitat modification as an immense improvement. I could create an appropriate understory with native shrub and vine leaves for him, and he could climb and hide. He used every inch of space in that cage. 


As native plants lost their leaves in the late fall, I struggled to find sprigs of blackberry. I accessorized with strands of semi-evergreen invasive Japanese honeysuckle, which I can still find in parks even now. I also experimented with putting a romaine lettuce leaf in a pill bottle of water. 
 

 And, of course, he enjoyed dining on an apple slice mounted on a twig.

The late fall decline in ensemble size is always sad for me. These insects were not young when I brought them inside and life was often hard on them before they were moved into a warm, safe retirement community for their final days. They may live for a month or two in the house - occasionally a little longer – but only two have ever lived into the new year.

This Forbes's Tree Cricket was missing a back leg, but that didn't affect

his ability to hold his appropriate position for singing.

Clicker continued as usual until sometime during the early part of New Year’s Eve, when he literally dropped dead to the floor of the cage. Now only an ancient Broad-winged Tree Cricket remains. His voice has faded to a whisper when he sings a few occasional short phrases during the night instead of his former resounding aria that continued for hours at a time. 

Broad-winged Tree Cricket on 1-1-20

It's already January 6th, and a new year of listening will begin with the first birdsongs of spring at the end of the month. We'll have a new array of singing insects in the house next fall. Still, it's gotten very quiet in the house at night...

I’m currently writing a page about crickets and katydids in the house in my Listening to Insects field guide. It will have more detailed information than I’d put in a blog post, and those of you who want to keep singing insects in the house will have that page and also its link to Songs of Insects as guides.