fall field cricket
Gryllus pennsylvanicus Burmeister 1838
map
male
male calling
female
female
male genitalia

20 s of calling song [1.77MB]; male from Dyer County, TN; 24.4°C. (WTL489-28)
5 s of calling song [255KB]; same as above but truncated and down-sampled.
11 s of courtship song [1.36MB]; male from Worcester County, MA, 23°C. Recording by K. N. Prestwich, used by permission.

spectrogram
Sound spectrogram of 2 s of calling at 24.4°C (from WTL489-28). Dominant frequency 4.7 kHz.
Click on spectrogram to hear graphed song.

spectrogram
Sound spectrogram of 2 s of courtship at 23°C (from the 11 s recording by K. N. Prestwich above). The soft, nearly continuous, shuffling sounds have a dominant frequency similar to the calling song (4.7 kHz) as do the two-pulse chirps with strong harmonics that are the loudest sounds. In contrast, the brief (10 ms), periodic ticks have their strongest frequencies at about 12 kHz. When courting a female, some males omit the two-pulse chirps in the terminal phase of a successful courtship; others do not.
Click on spectrogram to hear graphed song.

G. pennsylvanicus and G. veletis cannot be reliably distinguished by either song or external morphology (although in some localities the ovipositors of G. pennsylvanicus average substantially longer than those of G. veletis). However, G. veletis overwinters as mid-to-late instar juveniles, whereas G. pennsylvanicus overwinters in the egg stage. Both species have only one generation per year. Consequently, G. pennsylvanicus adults are most abundant in fall and G. veletis adults are most abundant in spring. In all localities where the species have been studied, a few adults of the two species occur together in midsummer.

More information:  subfamily Gryllinae, genus Gryllus

References:  See genus page.

Nomenclature:  OSFO2 (Orthoptera Species File Online)