21 s of courtship, male from Alachua County, Fla., 25.0°C. (WTL476-3)
This spectrogram is a 2 s excerpt of the 21 s audio file accessible above. The excerpt begins at 11 s.
20 s of two males fighting, Alachua County, Fla., 26.2°C. (WTL476-7a)
This spectrogram is a 4 s excerpt of the 20 s audio file accessible above. The excerpt begins at 14 s.
Song:
Unlike the aggressive songs of other Gryllus, which have most of their energy at about 4 kHz, those of G. ovisopis have most of the energy at about 14 kHz. (Walker 1974)
The courtship song of G. ovisopis is similar to that of other Gryllus, with short, sharp "ticks" separated by sequences of less intense pulses. The dominant frequencies of the ticks are about 14 kHz, and those of the less intense pulses are about 4 kHz.)
Identification:
This is a species of Gryllus that cannot be identified by its calling song - it has none! It is, however, the only large, black, fall-adult woods cricket with very short forewings. The ovipositor is more than 1.3 times the length of the hind femur and there are more than 45 teeth per mm of stridulatory file. A key to the adult males of native US Gryllus is in Weissman and Gray (2019).
Broadleaf forests, occurs in leaf litter and under objects such as logs and discarded pieces of plywood.
Life cycle:
G. ovisopis has a single generation each year with adults maturing in near synchrony in mid September. Females are quickly mated and eggs are deposited that hatch the following spring.
