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Not for being harmful to plantations I will overlook this insect that although it damages crops in many parts of the world I find it fascinating for its shape and appearance, I am talking about the Mole Cricket accompany me to meet this strange animal.
Scientific name is Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa. It is a species of orthoptero insect of the family Gryllotalpidae is found in parts of Asia, Africa and was introduced by Spanish settlers to America. Its body is dark brown, has very fine villi almost as if it were velvet, can measure 3 to 5 centimeters long depending on the species has an incomplete metamorphosis.
It has powerful front legs that stand out from the body, are very thick and serve to dig tunnels with incredible precision, reaching 20cm deep enough to devour the roots of plants.
As for their reproduction they wait until spring where the females lay their eggs in the caves protected from predators, after a few weeks they leave their semi-formed eggs and devote themselves to eating the roots of the plants their favorite food and when they are not eating they devote themselves to building their system of tunnels to move comfortably from one plantation to another.
When the winter arrives, the mole cricket hides in the tunnels it has built, descending to the deepest parts to avoid contact with the cold. They will only come out when there are temperatures above 16ºC while they remain motionless to reserve energy.
As I mentioned before, this kind of cricket devotes a great part of its life to digging underground galleries in order to communicate with different roots or places where it rests.
When this period of reproduction the male emits strong sounds to attract the female and is the only time they use their wings, the rest of the time they are underground too busy digging as to use the wings.
Its mouth has a powerful bite that is capable of gnawing at any root regardless of its hardness, and although it is known as a pest of plantations this animal prefers to hunt small invertebrates on the surface.
Its natural enemies are mainly birds and mice, which see the mole cricket as an excellent aperitif, and to cite more utilities than disadvantages of having this little friend in our garden, everything is based on his diet and is capable of ingesting large quantities of larvae harmful to humans, as well as they love different insects such as cockroaches or chirips.
This fabulous insect we can find it in many places of the planet, like warm places, soils of little hardness that does not make difficult its excavation, but above all you will find it in very humid soils but that have good drainage and that possess a necessary quantity of organic matter.
European, Asian and African countries are the vast territory that inhabits the cricket mole, was introduced by colonizing journeys by the Spanish empire made it possible for this insect to inhabit areas of America where it has reproduced successfully due to conditions suitable for reproduction.
This species can measure a maximum of 2.5 centimeters in length, to reach adulthood must go through at least 20 different stages of metamorphosis before reproducing again, so this catalogued as a slow-growing animal.
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