19 s of song. Submitted by Jennifer Lerner, Senior Resource Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Putnam County.
This sound spectrogram is a 2 s excerpt of the 19 s audio file accesssible above. The excerpt begins at 2 s.
Song at 25°C:
The sound spectrogram above, made at a soil temperature of 20°C, shows a pulse rate of 51p/s. Estimating the pulse rate at 25°C, using the formula in Walker (2000, p.566), yields a value of 60p/s at 25°C.
Identification:
This is the only species of Gryllotalpa known from eastern United States. Length 36-46 mm.
Similar species:
N. hexadactyla is less than 30 mm; hind tibia unarmed except at apex.
Habitat:
Moist, loose soils.
Season:
Adults are present at all times of year. Calling and mating probably occur in May and June. In Spain, this species has a two-year life cycle, spending the first winter as a juvenile and the next as an adult. Eggs are laid in spring.
Remarks:
This cricket is widespread in Europe and was evidently imported into the United States in shipments of ornamental plants. The earliest report of this species being established in North America was by Weiss (1915), who noted that the species had reached pest proportions in a nursery at Rutherford, Bergen County, New Jersey. From there it spread north across a state line into Orange County, New York, and by 2014 it was well established in the gardens and landscapes of Putnam and Westchester Counties, New York.
