# Pacific field cricket (*Teleogryllus oceanicus*)

Field Crickets are black or brown insects that love to chirp in the fields. Their song is a sign of warm weather!

- **Category:** [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/categories/insect)
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Danger:** 1/5 · Very low
- **Habitat:** Fields and meadows

![Field Cricket](https://res.cloudinary.com/drieglelr/image/upload/v1771426197/objects/5533.jpg)

## Appearance

The Field Cricket has a robust, dark brown to black body with long antennae and a shiny appearance. Its hard, leathery forewings cover delicate hind wings, and it features powerful jumping legs. Females are distinguished by a prominent, sword-like egg-laying tube called an ovipositor at their rear.

## Taxonomy

- **Kingdom:** Animalia
- **Phylum:** Arthropoda
- **Class:** Insecta
- **Order:** Orthoptera
- **Family:** Gryllidae
- **Genus:** Teleogryllus

## Pacific field cricket, up close

The Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus), also called the oceanic or Australian field cricket, is a large, dark cricket of coastal Australia and the Pacific islands, and was brought to Hawaii by people. Males sing at night by rubbing their forewings together, and females find them by ear. In Hawaii, a parasitoid fly that hunts by sound led to one of the fastest evolutionary changes seen in the wild: silent “flatwing” males.

Also called: Oceanic field cricket, Australian field cricket, Polynesian field cricket.

Ears on its legs, a song played on its wings, and Hawaiian males that evolved silence. Spin it, tap it, then test yourself.

### Special abilities

- **Wing Song** (≈4.8 kHz peak pitch of the calling song): A male sings by rubbing a toothed file on one forewing against a scraper on the other, many times a second. [1][2][13][14][15][16]
  - The calling song starts with a long chirp of 3 to 8 sound pulses, followed by a run of short chirps of 2 pulses each.
  - Females recognise their own species from the rhythm alone: the pattern of gaps between pulses.
  - Males use a calling song to attract females from afar and a different courtship song once a female is close.
  - Night-time singing follows an inner body clock with a cycle of about 24 hours, which keeps running even without day and night cues.
  - Pulses per chirp: Long chirp (most) up to 8; Long chirp (fewest) 3; Short chirp 2
- **Knee Ears** (3–9 kHz song pitches a flying female turns towards): Eardrums on the front legs pick up a male’s song, and also the high-pitched clicks of hunting bats. [9][6][5]
  - In flight tests, females turned towards song played at 3–9 kHz.
  - When the same pattern was played at 30–70 kHz (ultrasound, like a bat’s calls), they turned away. Scientists think this helps crickets dodge bats at night.
  - Ear nerve cells cluster around three pitch bands: up to 5.5 kHz, 10–12 kHz and 18 kHz or more.
- **Silent Wings** (<20 generations for Kauai males to go silent): On Kauai, a wing mutation that wipes out the song spread to more than 90% of males in fewer than 20 generations. [17][18][3][19][20]
  - Flatwing males cannot sing, so the song-hunting fly cannot find them.
  - A single gene on the X chromosome causes it. Silent males appeared on Oahu about two years after Kauai, from a different mutation with the same result.
  - Since then, other silencing wing types, such as curly-wing, have spread in Hawaii too.
- **Satellite Sneak** (0 notes sung by a satellite male): A silent male waits quietly near a singing male and meets the females that come to the song. [17][21]
  - Flatwing males on Kauai head towards calling song more strongly than normal males, which helps them meet females.
  - What a young male hears while growing up shapes how he behaves as an adult, including whether he acts as a satellite.
- **Song Switch-On** (Last 4 moults in which song circuits appear): Nymphs cannot sing. Their nerve circuits for singing build up over the last four moults before adulthood. [22][8]
  - Young crickets grow by moulting: they split their old outer skin and step out in a bigger one.
  - In studies of crickets, the singing circuits were complete before the final moult but held back by signals from the brain until adulthood.
  - Males become ready to mate about 10 days after their final moult.
- **Egg Drill** (33–42 mm female length with ovipositor): A female pushes her needle-like ovipositor into damp soil and lays her eggs underground. [7][8][4]
  - Eggs develop safely in the moist ground. In the lab, scientists check sand pads daily for up to 3 weeks for hatching.
  - In Hawaii there are about 3–4 cricket generations a year.
- **Cricket Thermometer** (N₁₅ + 40 °F rule, for snowy tree crickets; still debated): In 1897 Amos Dolbear showed that a cricket’s chirp rate tracks the temperature. His rule fits snowy tree crickets, not field crickets. [23][24]
  - Count the chirps of a snowy tree cricket in 15 seconds and add 40 to get a rough temperature in °F.
  - Dolbear did not name his cricket; later researchers took it to be the snowy tree cricket, now called Oecanthus fultoni.
  - Field crickets are much less reliable thermometers: age, mating success and other things change their chirp rate too.

### Body parts

- **Forewings** (≈4.8 kHz peak pitch of the song) [1][2][3][4]
  - Only males sing. A male lifts his tough forewings and rubs a toothed vein (the file) on one wing against a hard edge (the plectrum, or scraper) on the other.
  - Thin, clear patches between the veins, the harp and the mirrors, vibrate like the skin of a drum and make the sound louder.
  - The calling song is a nearly pure tone with a peak of about 4.8 kHz, close to the note the harp is built to ring at.
  - In parts of Hawaii most males now have “flatwing” forewings without these parts, so they cannot sing.
- **Ears** (2 eardrums on each front leg) [5][6]
  - A cricket’s ears are on its front legs, on the shin (tibia) just below the “knee”.
  - Each front leg has two thin eardrums (tympana). In a close relative, the hearing organ behind them is only about 0.2 mm across, one of the smallest ears of any animal.
  - Scientists recording from Pacific field cricket ears tested sounds from 2 to 40 kHz and found nerve cells tuned to low, middle and very high pitches.
- **Antennae** [7]
  - The long, thin antennae feel and smell the world in the dark.
  - When two crickets meet, they tap antennae. Chemicals on the body tell a male whether the other cricket is a female or a rival male.
- **Head and jaws** [8]
  - Strong chewing mouthparts let the cricket eat both plant food and animal food: it is an omnivore.
  - In research labs Pacific field crickets are raised on dry cat food and water, which shows how varied their diet can be.
- **Body** (28–35 mm adult male length) [7]
  - A large, dark brown to black cricket. Males are usually 28–35 mm long.
  - Females measure 33–42 mm, partly because their long egg-laying tube adds to their length.
- **Hind legs** [9]
  - The big back legs are built for jumping away from danger.
  - Adults can also fly. In flight tests, crickets steered towards or away from a sound by bending the abdomen and hind legs to one side, like a rudder.
- **Ovipositor** (33–42 mm female length with ovipositor) [7][8]
  - Only females have the long, needle-like ovipositor between the two tail feelers (cerci).
  - She pushes it into damp ground and lays her eggs there. In the lab, females lay into pads of wet sand.
- **The listening fly** (2° how precisely the fly finds a sound) [10][2][11][12]
  - Ormia ochracea is a small North American fly that reached Hawaii by at least 1989. Females find singing male crickets by ear.
  - Its ears are tuned near 5 kHz, the pitch of the cricket’s song, and work much more like a cricket’s ear than a normal fly’s.
  - Although its two eardrums are less than 0.5 mm apart, it can point to a sound to within 2°, about as well as you can.
  - The fly places tiny larvae on or near the singer; they burrow in and the cricket does not survive.

### Stats

| Stat | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Male length | 28–35 mm | adult males [7] |
| Female length | 33–42 mm | including the ovipositor [7] |
| Song pitch | ≈4.8 kHz | peak frequency of the nearly pure-tone calling song [2] |
| Long chirp | 3–8 pulses | followed by short chirps of 2 pulses each [13] |
| Ear range tested | 2–40 kHz | ear nerve cells cluster at ≤5.5, 10–12 and ≥18 kHz [6] |
| Bat-dodge pitches | 30–70 kHz | flying females turned away from song played this high [9] |
| Silent males on Kauai | >90% | flatwing within fewer than 20 generations; now close to all males [17][4] |
| Generations a year | 3–4 | in Hawaii; 20 generations ≈ 5 to 7 years [4] |
| Fly larvae carried | 57–517 | tiny larvae held by one female parasitoid fly [28] |
| Ready to mate | ≈10 days | after a male’s final moult (lab, 25 °C) [8] |

### Photos

- [An adult Pacific field cricket](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teleogryllus_oceanicus.jpg) (photo: Caroline Harding, MAF, CC BY 3.0 AU)
- [Its close look-alike, the Australian black field cricket (Teleogryllus commodus)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teleogryllus_commodus_182811583.jpg) (photo: Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0)
- [A female black field cricket (probably T. commodus), Tasmania: note the long ovipositor](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Field-cricket-20070325-004.jpg) (photo: Ghouston, CC0)
- [A newly hatched nymph of a related Teleogryllus cricket (T. emma)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teleogryllus_emma_a_first-instar_caterpillar.jpg) (photo: Eastolany, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [Ormia ochracea, the fly that finds singing crickets by ear](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ormia_ochracea_(gravid_female).jpg) (photo: Jpaur, CC BY-SA 3.0)
- [Australian black field cricket, a close relative](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teleogryllus_commodus_258356804.jpg) (photo: Jaco Grundling, CC0)
- [A male European field cricket singing at its burrow, for comparison](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gryllus_campestris_male_chant_terrier_Remi_Chabert_CC_BY_SA_4.0.jpg) (photo: Rémi Chabert, CC BY-SA 4.0)
- [Male European field cricket (Gryllus campestris), a different species](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gryllus_campestris_male_(4725285630).jpg) (photo: Gilles San Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0)

### Questions

- **How do field crickets chirp?** Only males chirp. A male raises his forewings and rubs a toothed vein, the file, against a hard scraper on the other wing. Thin wing panels called the harp and mirrors vibrate and make the sound loud. The Pacific field cricket’s song peaks at about 4.8 kHz. [1][2]
- **Why did crickets in Hawaii stop chirping?** A parasitoid fly, Ormia ochracea, finds male crickets by their song. On Kauai, a wing mutation called flatwing that makes males silent spread to more than 90% of males in fewer than 20 generations, because silent males survive. [17][18]
- **Where are a cricket’s ears?** On its front legs. Each front leg has two small eardrums on the shin, just below the knee. [5]
- **Can you tell the temperature from cricket chirps?** Roughly, for snowy tree crickets: Dolbear’s 1897 rule says count chirps in 15 seconds and add 40 to get °F. Field crickets, including this one, are much less reliable. [23][24]
- **What is a purring cricket?** A Pacific field cricket in Hawaii with heavily changed wings that makes a new sound called purring. Female crickets respond to purrs, but the song-hunting flies do not seem to. [26][2][15]
- **Are these the crickets people eat?** Usually not. The best-known farmed food cricket is the house cricket, Acheta domesticus, which European food-safety experts assessed as a novel food in 2021. [29]
- **Do field crickets bite?** They are harmless to people. A big cricket held in the hand may give a light nip with its jaws, which is a good reason to watch and not pick them up. Wash your hands if you touch one, and leave wild crickets where you found them.
- **Is the Pacific field cricket endangered?** No assessment exists: the IUCN Red List has not evaluated it. It is common in coastal Australia and on many Pacific islands, though Hawaiian populations shrank after the parasitoid fly arrived. [31][35]

### Pacific field cricket myths and facts

Chirping legs, cricket thermometers and silent islands: true or not?

- "Crickets chirp by rubbing their legs together." **Myth!** They rub their forewings: a toothed file on one wing scrapes over a hard edge on the other, and thin wing panels ring out. [1]
- "A cricket’s ears are on its front legs." **Fact!** Each front leg has two small eardrums on the shin, just below the knee. [5]
- "You can tell the temperature by counting any cricket’s chirps." **Myth!** Dolbear’s 1897 rule works for the snowy tree cricket. Field crickets’ chirp rates also change with age, mating success and other things, so they are poor thermometers. [23][24]
- "Hawaiian crickets lost their song in just a few years." **Fact!** Silent males were first seen on Kauai in 2003. In fewer than 20 generations, at 3–4 generations a year, more than 90% of males there were silent. [4][17]
- "A male that cannot sing can never find a mate." **Myth!** Silent flatwing males wait near the few males that still sing and meet the females who come to the song. [17]
- "The silent wing mutation spread from Kauai to the other islands." **Myth!** Gene studies show that Kauai and Oahu flatwings come from different mutations. Evolution reached the same silence twice. [3]
- "The fly that hunts singing crickets can pinpoint a sound as well as you can." **Fact!** Ormia ochracea locates a sound to within 2°, as precisely as a person, even though its eardrums are less than 0.5 mm apart. [12]
- "The crickets people eat are mostly field crickets like this one." **Myth!** The best-known farmed food cricket is the house cricket, Acheta domesticus, which European food-safety experts have assessed as a novel food. [29]

### Pacific field cricket records

Evolution in fast-forward, and an enemy with very sharp ears.

- One of the fastest changes seen in the wild: Kauai Pacific field crickets, <20 generations (from singing to more than 90% silent males; a textbook example of rapid evolution) [17][4]
- A brand-new cricket song: Purring Pacific field crickets, Hawaii, Purring (a new song described in 2018, unlike that of any other known cricket) [26]
- Same silence, two different genes: Kauai and Oahu flatwings, 2 origins (separate mutations on two islands gave the same silent result) [3]
- Tiny ears, sharp aim: Ormia ochracea, the cricket’s enemy, 2° (finds a singing cricket as precisely as a human locates a sound, with eardrums less than 0.5 mm apart) [12]

### A Pacific field cricket’s life

From an egg in damp soil to a singing adult.

- **Egg**: Laid in damp ground. The female pushes her ovipositor into moist soil or sand and lays her eggs. [7][8]
- **Hatching**: A tiny nymph. A wingless nymph hatches. It looks like a small adult without wings and cannot sing. [22]
- **Growing up**: Moult after moult. The nymph grows by moulting. Over the last four moults, its singing circuits build up. [22]
- **Final moult**: Adult with wings. After the last moult it has full wings. Males are ready to mate about 10 days later. [8]
- **Night**: Singing time. Males sing at night, timed by an inner clock. In Hawaii, singing can attract a deadly parasitoid fly. [16][17]
- **Mating**: Following the song. Females follow the song to a male. Then the cycle starts again. [9][13]
- **A year**: 3–4 generations. In warm Hawaii the crickets breed all year, with about 3–4 generations a year. [4][21]

### How Hawaii’s Pacific field crickets went silent

A fly that hunts by ear arrived, and within a few years most males on Kauai had stopped singing.

- **By 1877**: Crickets reach Hawaii. Pacific field crickets were in Hawaii by at least 1877, possibly brought much earlier by Polynesian settlers. Hawaiian crickets are most closely related to those of the Society and Cook Islands. [10][30]
- **By 1989**: A listening fly arrives. Ormia ochracea, a North American fly that finds crickets by their song, was in Hawaii by at least 1989. [10][2]
- **2003**: Silent males on Kauai. Males with flat, songless “flatwing” wings were first seen on Kauai. [4]
- **~2005**: Silence on Oahu. About two years later, flatwings appeared on Oahu, from a different mutation. [3]
- **2006**: “Silent night”. Scientists reported that more than 90% of Kauai males had gone silent in fewer than 20 generations. [17]
- **2008**: One gene. Breeding tests showed flatwing is controlled by a single gene on the X chromosome. [18]
- **2018**: Purring crickets. A new song, purring, made with heavily changed wings, was described. Female crickets respond to it. [26][15]
- **2021**: A secret channel. Field tests found that female crickets respond to purrs but the flies do not, a kind of private conversation. [2]
- **2024**: Curly-wing too. A third silencing form, curly-wing, now lives alongside flatwing in several Hawaiian populations. [20]

### Pacific field cricket vs house cricket vs European field cricket

Three crickets that are easy to mix up, side by side.

| | Pacific field cricket | House cricket | European field cricket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scientific name [31][32][33] | Teleogryllus oceanicus | Acheta domesticus | Gryllus campestris |
| Where [7][29][34] | Coastal Australia and Pacific islands, including Hawaii (introduced) | Widely kept and farmed by people | Europe |
| Male length [7][34] | 28–35 mm | — | 19–23 mm |
| Can adults fly? [9][34] | Yes | — | No, flightless |
| Where males sing [16][34] | At night, out in the grass | — | At the mouth of a burrow |
| Farmed as human food [29] | No | Yes, assessed as a novel food in the EU | No |
| IUCN Red List (global) [31][32][33] | Not evaluated | Not evaluated | Not evaluated |

“—” means we found no reliable figure to compare.

### Is the Pacific field cricket endangered?

Not as far as anyone knows. It is common across its range, but nobody has assessed it for the IUCN Red List.

- **IUCN Red List:** Not Evaluated (NE) (Trend unknown). GBIF lists the species as Not Evaluated. It is widespread in coastal Australia and on many Pacific islands. [31][7]
- Not evaluated by the IUCN Red List
- **Threat: A deadly fly in Hawaii**: The introduced parasitoid fly kills singing males. Genetic studies suggest Hawaiian populations shrank sharply after it arrived. [17][35]
- **Threat: Low genetic variety on islands**: Genetic variety is highest in Australia and lowest in Hawaii, after repeated island hops. [30]
- **Threat: Light at night**: Lab studies show that artificial light at night while crickets grow up can affect their later breeding. [36]
- **Helping: Watched by scientists**: Hawaiian populations have been studied for over 20 years, so changes are noticed quickly. [4][35]
- **Helping: Darker nights**: Turning off or shading outdoor lights helps night insects. Scientists are still testing how much it helps this cricket. [36]
- **Helping: Watch, don’t collect**: Listen for singing males after dark and watch with a dim torch, then leave them where they are.
- **European field cricket (Gryllus campestris)** (NE): Flightless and slow to spread. In the UK it fell to a single colony of about 100 crickets in the early 1990s and conservationists have bred it in captivity to help it recover. [34][33]

### Pacific field cricket signals

- Calling song at night: A male advertising to females far away. [15][16]
- Courtship song: A female is close; the male is trying to win her over. [15][26]
- Antennae tapping another cricket: Checking whether the other cricket is a female or a rival male. [7]
- Wings moving, but no sound (flatwing): A silent male still going through the singing movements. [25][27]
- Sharp swerve in flight: Ultrasound like a bat’s call: get out of the way. [9]

### Forms

- **Male (singing)**: Dark brown to black, with veined forewings carrying the file, scraper, harp and mirrors. (Sings at night to attract females) [1][7]
- **Female**: Forewings with a plain net of veins and no sound-making parts, plus a long ovipositor at the tail end. (Finds males by ear and lays eggs in damp ground) [7][25][8]
- **Flatwing male (Hawaii)**: Male with feminised, flat forewings: the file and harp are missing or reduced, so he cannot sing. (Hidden from the parasitoid fly; meets females as a satellite) [3][4][25][17]
- **Nymph**: A smaller young cricket without full wings. It grows by moulting and gets working wings only at the final moult. (Cannot sing until after the final moult) [22]

### Pacific field cricket quiz

1. What does a male Pacific field cricket rub together to sing? **Its forewings.** A toothed file on one forewing scrapes a hard edge on the other. [1]
2. Where are a cricket’s ears? **On its front legs.** Two eardrums sit on each front leg, just below the knee. [5]
3. About what pitch is the calling song? **4.8 kHz.** The calling song is nearly a pure tone with a peak at about 4.8 kHz. [2]
4. Which crickets sing? **Only males.** Only males have the file and scraper on their wings. Females listen. [17][1]
5. Why did many Hawaiian males stop singing? **A fly that finds crickets by their song.** The parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea homes in on singing males. [17][11]
6. What share of Kauai males were silent within 20 generations? **More than 90%.** More than 90% of males became flatwing in fewer than 20 generations. [17]
7. How do silent flatwing males meet females? **They wait near singing males.** They act as satellites near the few males that still sing. [17]
8. Did Oahu’s flatwings come from Kauai’s? **No, a different mutation.** Gene studies show separate origins on the two islands. [3]
9. What new song was discovered in Hawaii and described in 2018? **Purring.** Purring is a new song unlike any other known cricket’s; females respond to it but the flies do not. [26][2]
10. Flying females turned away from song played at 30–70 kHz. What sound is that like? **A bat’s calls.** Ultrasound like this is what hunting bats use; scientists think the swerve helps crickets escape. [9]
11. Which cricket did Dolbear’s 1897 temperature rule really describe? **Snowy tree cricket.** It is usually linked to the snowy tree cricket, Oecanthus fultoni. [24]
12. Which cricket is best known as farmed human food? **House cricket.** The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, has been assessed as a novel food in the EU. [29]

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25. [Rayner JG, Schneider WT, Bailey NW (2020). Can behaviour impede evolution? Persistence of singing effort after morphological song loss in crickets. Biology Letters 16:20190931.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0931)
26. [Tinghitella RM, Broder ED, Gurule-Small GA, Hallagan CJ, Wilson JD (2018). Purring crickets: the evolution of a novel sexual signal. American Naturalist 192:773–782.](https://doi.org/10.1086/700116)
27. [Schneider WT, Rutz C, Hedwig B, Bailey NW (2018). Vestigial singing behaviour persists after the evolutionary loss of song in crickets. Biology Letters 14:20170654.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0654)
28. [Broder ED, Gallagher JH, Wikle AW, et al. (2022). Behavioral responses of a parasitoid fly to rapidly evolving host signals. Ecology and Evolution 12:e9193.](https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.9193)
29. [EFSA NDA Panel (2021). Safety of frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets (Acheta domesticus) as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. EFSA Journal 19:e06779.](https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2021.6779)
30. [Tinghitella RM, Zuk M, Beveridge M, Simmons LW (2011). Island hopping introduces Polynesian field crickets to novel environments, genetic bottlenecks and rapid evolution. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 24:1199–1211.](https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1420-9101.2011.02255.x)
31. [GBIF: Teleogryllus oceanicus (Le Guillou, 1841), IUCN Red List category.](https://www.gbif.org/species/1723426)
32. [GBIF: Acheta domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) (house cricket).](https://www.gbif.org/species/1718308)
33. [GBIF: Gryllus campestris Linnaeus, 1758 (European field cricket).](https://www.gbif.org/species/1716462)
34. [Wikipedia: Gryllus campestris.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gryllus_campestris)
35. [Rayner JG, Yusuf LH, Zhang R, Zhang S, Gaggiotti OE, Bailey NW (2026). Genomic signatures of adaptation across a landscape of crickets following the introduction of a parasitoid fly. Science Advances 12:eaed1906.](https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aed1906)
36. [Rutkowski NJ, Jones TM, McNamara KB (2025). Dietary melatonin supplementation mitigates the negative effects of artificial light at night in the Pacific field cricket, Teleogryllus oceanicus. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 292:20252072.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2072)

## Measurements & details

- **Wingspan:** 40-60 mm
- **Size:** 28-42 mm
- **Lifespan:** 60-90 days
- **Leg Count:** 6

## Diet & Feeding

An omnivore, the Field Cricket eats a mix of plants, seeds, and smaller insects.

- **Primary Foods:** Grass, Leaves, Seeds, Decaying plant matter, Small insects
- **Foraging Method:** Foraging

## Ecological connections

- **Eaten by:** [House Sparrow](https://www.snappit.app/explore/house-sparrow) (*Passer domesticus*) — A common bird that preys on crickets in urban and rural areas.
- **Eaten by:** [Black Rat](https://www.snappit.app/explore/black-rat) (*Rattus rattus*) — Rats are opportunistic predators and will consume crickets when available.
- **Parasite:** Parasitoid Fly (*Ormia ochracea*) — A parasitoid fly that finds male crickets by their song. In Hawaii it kills singing males.
- **Eats:** Perennial Ryegrass (*Lolium perenne*) — A common grass species that crickets feed on in lawns and pastures.

## Traits

- [Wildlife](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/wildlife): Wildlife encompasses all undomesticated animal and plant life existing in their natural habitats.
- [Singing](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/singing): Singing animals produce complex vocalizations, often for purposes of attracting mates, defending territory, or communicating within their species.
- [Agricultural](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/agricultural): This human use trait describes species cultivated or domesticated by humans for agricultural purposes, including crops and livestock.
- [Grassland](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/grassland): Grassland habitats are terrestrial biomes dominated by grasses and herbaceous plants, supporting a variety of grazing animals.
- [Herbivorous](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/herbivorous): This trait characterizes organisms whose diet consists entirely or primarily of plant material.
- [Nocturnal](https://www.snappit.app/explore/traits/nocturnal): Nocturnal animals are primarily active during the nighttime hours, typically resting or sleeping during the day.

## Collections

- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects)
- [Insects](https://www.snappit.app/explore/collections/insects-and-bugs)

## Safety

**Danger:** 1/5 · Very low

Do not pick up wild crickets. They are harmless, but a big one may give a light nip. Wash your hands if you touch one, and ask an adult for help.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### How to identify Pacific field cricket?

Look for six legs, antennae, three body sections and the shape of the wings. Beetles have hardened front wings; flies have just one working pair. Tiny insects may need a close view before their group is clear. Insect Identifier: upload a photo and compare the visible details.

### What is Pacific field cricket's wingspan?

40-60 mm

### How big is Pacific field cricket?

28-42 mm

### How long does Pacific field cricket live?

60-90 days

### What does Pacific field cricket eat?

An omnivore, the Field Cricket eats a mix of plants, seeds, and smaller insects.

### Where is Pacific field cricket usually found?

Fields and meadows

### How many legs does Pacific field cricket have?

6

## More Insects

- [Common Eastern Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/common-eastern-bumble-bee) (*Bombus impatiens*)
- [Spotted Lanternfly](https://www.snappit.app/explore/spotted-lanternfly) (*Lycorma delicatula*)
- [Brown-belted Bumble Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/brown-belted-bumble-bee) (*Bombus griseocollis*)
- [Eastern Carpenter Bee](https://www.snappit.app/explore/eastern-carpenter-bee) (*Xylocopa virginica*)

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Source: [Pacific field cricket: Facts & Places to See — Snappit](https://www.snappit.app/explore/field-cricket)