Teleogryllus oceanicus

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Teleogryllus oceanicus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Orthoptera Suborder: Ensifera Superfamily: Grylloidea Family: Gryllidae Subfamily: Gryllinae Genus: Teleogryllus Species: T. oceanicus
Binomial name
Teleogryllus oceanicus (Le Guillou, 1841)
Synonyms
Achaeta oceanica Gryllus oceanicus Gryllus innotabilis

Teleogryllus oceanicus commonly known as the Australian, Pacific or oceanic field cricket is a cricket that occurs across the Oceania and in coastal Australia from Carnarvon in Western Australia and Rockhampton in north-east Queensland.^[1] It may also be referred to as the black field cricket, a common name it shares with Teleogryllus commodus.

The species was introduced to Hawaii in 1877,^[2] where it is predated on by the parasitic fly Ormia ochracea. Research has shown that the male cricket on Kauai underwent a mutation in 2003 that removed the file and scraper apparatus required for producing sound from the wing and rendered the males incapable of using song to attract female crickets. Within 20 generations the 90% of the males on Kauai have "flatwings"; the mutation has reduced predation since the fly cannot locate the males. The males have also adapted their behaviour, exploiting males that can make sound to attract mates for them.^[3]

[edit] References

1. ^ Otte, D. & Alexander, R.D. 1983. The Australian Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
2. ^ Kevan, D.K.M. 1990. Introduced grasshoppers and crickets in Micronesia. Bol. San. Veg. 20: 105–123.
3. ^ Zuk, M. et al. 2006. Silent night: adaptive disappearance of a sexual signal in a parasitized population of field crickets. Biology Letters DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0539

[edit] External links

• Cook Islands Biodiversity site, images and sounds