Crickets
What are they?
Unlike bush-crickets (many of which will habitually climb high into trees and bushes), true crickets tend to be ground-living creatures with some even spending most of their time burrowing below ground. Their legs are relatively shorter than those of bush-crickets and they are generally shades of rusty brown, gray-brown and black. The males of true crickets are accomplished 'songsters' producing sounds by using a scraper mechanism on the forewings.
Identification
The pattern of black-brown and light brown will help with identification, especially on the head and thorax. Some of the field crickets are so similar that identification based on stridulation ('songs') may be easier than going by their outward appearance. Recordings of the sounds of these creatures are readily available on CD or on the internet.
Eastern Striped Cricket Miogryllus saussurei
An attractively marked, medium-sized cricket that closely resembles the Japanese Burrowing Cricket, but has a more rounded head with shorter lower face when viewed head-on.
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Sand Field Cricket Gryllus firmus
Very similar to Fall Field Cricket but has a tendency to be more reddish in color. The Gryllus species are a particularly difficult group to identify as even the calls can be very similar. Sand Field Cricket largely replaces Fall Field Cricket in sandy places and near the coast. The female of this species also has a longer ovipositor than that of Fall Field Cricket.
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