Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris (Bosc, 1792))
Scientific name: Nemobius sylvestris (Bosc, 1792)
Common name: Wood Cricket
French name: Grillon des bois, Grillon forestier, Némobie forestier, Némobie forestière.
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Gryllidae
Wingspan : 7 to 12 mm (without female ovipositor).
Biotope: Under leaf litter on woodland edges and in sunny clearings. You can also find it on stone walls, always near woodlands or bushy places. Wood Crickets do not dig burrows.
Geographic area: Western Europe, missing in Scandinavia and northern regions. North Africa.
Observation period : June to late October. The lifecycle covers two years. The first winter is passed at the egg state, the second winter is passed at the nymph state.
The Wood Cricket is a dark coloured small size Cricket with a paler pronotum.
The head is dark black with yellow sutures drawing a pentagon shape between the eyes.
The elytra are short and never extend beyond the half of the abdomen. Their inner tip corner is rounded.
The hind tibiae bear three long spines.
The abdomen ends by two long straight and thin cerci. Females show an ovipositor.
The Wood Cricket feeds on dead leaves and fungi.
The song is not very loud and the interrupted rhythm can make you think to a message in Morse code.

Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) - Yvelines, France - October 13th 2010
[To know more about the Wood Cricket]    [Next picture]    [Top]
Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris)
This Wood cricket has entered into the house. This is a fact that I live next to a forest.
You can clearly see, on this picture, the three long spines on the hind tibiae.


Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) - Yvelines, France - October 13th 2010
[To know more about the Wood Cricket]    [Next picture]    [Previous picture]    [Top]
Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris)
The presence of an ovipositor indicates a female.


Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) - Yvelines, France - November 19th 2011
[To know more about the Wood Cricket]    [Next picture]    [Previous picture]    [Top]
Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris)
Here is one Wood Cricket observed in the forest after having removed the litter of dead leaves.
The pentagon-shaped marking, drawn by the yellow sutures between the eyes, is clearly visible on this picture.


Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris) - Yvelines, France - November 19th 2011
[To know more about the Wood Cricket]    [Previous picture]    [Top]
Wood Cricket (Nemobius sylvestris)
Upper side view.

[Top]    Site map    André Bon January 2014