Those things are everywhere!! They hang on the grass, they hang on the walls, they squeek when you pass them, they die on the roads: Ground crickets. When taking a walk, I watch them crossing the road or feeding on individuals of their own species that got killed by a car. They are big and creepy. When passing one, it enlarges itself to appear bigger and often releases a squeeking noise to avoid predation. Quite funny.
Not so funny is their cannibalistic behaviour. It is disgusting to seem feeding on each other. And that happens quite often. Cars drive over one and soon after, another one comes and starts eating it. Even if it is still alive. But then this one might be killed by the next car and so on. The books say this behaviour is especially seen in times when they lack of protein and salt. Interesting, how nature solves this but not the nicest thing to observe.
Apart from that I find their defence mechanisms quite interesting and they have a couple of them:
- Standing upright: when coming closer, the straighten their legs to appear bigger. And they always face you then. When you walk around them, they follow and always keep you in eyesight.
- Squeeking by stradulation: they make a loud sound by rubbing body parts together.
- Autohaemorrhaging: they squirt 5-80 mg of possibly toxic haemolymph at the attacker. This is later cleaned properly to not appear hurt what would in worst case attract other ground crickets and encourage their cannibalistic behaviour.
- Vomiting: if nothing else helps, they vomit on themselves.
You want to learn more about the Ground Cricket? Find some more information HERE.
Have a lovely day,
Sininho
Sininho´s World 
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