Mole cricket
Burrowing insects known for loud songs and agricultural impact.
Mole crickets belong to the insect family Gryllotalpidae, part of the order Orthoptera, which also includes grasshoppers, locusts, and true crickets. These insects have cylindrical bodies and live underground, reaching about 3 to 5 centimeters in length as adults. They have small eyes and strong, shovel-like front legs that are highly specialized for digging. Found across many parts of the world, mole crickets can become agricultural pests when they are introduced to new areas.
Their life cycle includes three stages: eggs, nymphs, and adults. They spend most of their lives beneath the soil, though adults have wings and fly during the breeding season to find new locations. Diet varies by species—some eat only plants, mainly roots; others are omnivores that also consume worms and grubs; and a few are mostly predators. Male mole crickets produce an exceptionally loud song, which they sing from a burrow shaped like an exponential horn opening into the air. This song is a nearly pure tone broken into chirps, used to attract females for mating or to signal good egg-laying sites.
In Zambia, mole crickets are considered lucky, while in Latin America, they are thought to predict rain. In Florida, where Neoscapteriscus species are not native, they are viewed as pests, and biological controls have been employed. People in West Java, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines have used Gryllotalpa species as food.
Most mole crickets are moderate-sized insects, typically 3.2 to 3.5 centimeters long as adults. Their bodies are cylindrical and covered in fine, dense hairs, adapted for life underground. The head, front legs, and prothorax are heavily hardened, while the abdomen is softer. The head has two threadlike antennae and a pair of small, bead-like eyes. Two pairs of wings fold flat over the abdomen—in most species, the forewings are short and rounded, and the hindwings are membranous, reaching or extending past the abdomen tip; however, some species have reduced hindwings and cannot fly. The front legs are flattened for digging, and the hind legs resemble those of true crickets but are better suited for pushing soil than for jumping, which they do rarely and poorly. Nymphs look like adults but lack wings and genitalia, with wing pads growing larger after each molt.
The family Gryllotalpidae is a monophyletic group within Orthoptera. A 2015 cladistic analysis of mole cricket morphology identified six tribes, four of which were new: Indioscaptorini, Triamescaptorini, Gryllotalpellini, and Neocurtillini, along with the revised tribes Scapteriscini and Gryllotalpini. The group name comes from Latin *gryllus* (cricket) and *talpa* (mole). Extant genera are divided into subfamilies: Gryllotalpinae includes tribes Gryllotalpellini (South America), Gryllotalpini (worldwide), Neocurtillini (Americas), and Triamescaptorini (New Zealand), plus the extinct genera *Pterotriamescaptor* and *Burmagryllotalpa* from Burmese amber. Scapteriscinae includes Indioscaptorini (Indian Subcontinent) and Scapteriscini (Americas), with genera *Scapteriscus* and *Neoscapteriscus*. The extinct subfamily Marchandiinae includes fossils from Brazil and France. Other fossils, such as *Tresdigitus rectanguli*, are known from Burmese amber. Mole cricket fossils are rare; a stem-group fossil, *Cratotetraspinus*, comes from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil, and two specimens of *Marchandia magnifica* in amber have been found in France. They are more common in Tertiary amber from the Baltic and Dominican regions, with impressions also found in Europe and the American Green River Formation.
Mole crickets are not closely related to pygmy mole crickets (Tridactyloidea), which belong to the grasshopper suborder Caelifera rather than the cricket suborder Ensifera. Both groups, along with mammalian moles, show convergent evolution, having independently developed powerful front limbs for burrowing.
Adults of most species can fly strongly, though not with great agility, and males rarely do so. Females usually take flight shortly after sunset and are drawn to areas where males call for about an hour after sunset. This calling may attract females for mating or indicate suitable egg-laying habitats based on the number of calling males.
Mole crickets undergo incomplete metamorphosis: nymphs hatch from eggs and gradually resemble adults through up to 10 molts. After mating, females may wait 1 to 2 weeks before laying eggs. They burrow up to 30 centimeters deep (or up to 72 centimeters in laboratory conditions) and deposit a clutch of 25 to 60 eggs. In *Neoscapteriscus* species, females then seal the entrance and leave; in *Gryllotalpa* and *Neocurtilla* species, females stay in an adjoining chamber to tend the eggs. Additional clutches may follow over several months, depending on the species.
- field
- Entomology
- known_for
- Fossorial lifestyle, loud singing from exponential horn burrows, and status as agricultural pests in some regions
- size
- 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) as adults
- life_stages
- Eggs, nymphs, adults
- diet
- Herbivorous, omnivorous, or largely predatory depending on species
Quick Facts
- Taxon
- Gryllotalpidae
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Mole crickets spend most of their lives underground, but adults have wings and disperse during the breeding season. Their diet varies: some species are herbivores feeding on roots; others are omnivores including worms and grubs; a few are largely predatory. Male mole crickets produce an exceptionally loud song from a burrow shaped like an exponential horn, using an almost pure tone modulated into chirps to attract females for mating or to indicate favorable egg-laying habitats. Mole crickets undergo incomplete metamorphosis, passing through up to 10 moults from nymph to adult. After mating, females lay clutches of 25 to 60 eggs in moist soil, sometimes sealing the burrow entrance. In some genera, the female remains to tend the clutch. Nymphs consume large amounts of plant material. Adults of some species can move up to 8 km during the breeding season. In Zambia, mole crickets are thought to bring good fortune; in Latin America, they are said to predict rain. In Florida, non-native Neoscapteriscus species are considered pests, and biological controls have been used. Gryllotalpa species have been used as food in West Java, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines.
Reader's Guide
Mole crickets are significant both ecologically and economically. As fossorial insects, they play a role in soil aeration and nutrient cycling through their extensive burrowing. However, their root-feeding habits make them serious agricultural pests in regions where they are introduced, such as Florida, prompting the use of biological controls. Their unique singing behavior—using a burrow as an acoustic horn to produce a loud, pure-tone song—is a notable example of insect communication and bioacoustics. The family Gryllotalpidae is a monophyletic group within Orthoptera, and their resemblance to mammalian moles and pygmy mole crickets illustrates convergent evolution for burrowing. Culturally, they are viewed positively in some regions (as omens of good fortune or rain) and as a food source in parts of Asia. Their fossil record is sparse but includes specimens from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil and France, as well as Tertiary amber from the Baltic and Dominican regions.
Did You Know?
- Male mole crickets sing from a burrow shaped like an exponential horn, producing an almost pure tone modulated into chirps.
- In Florida, non-native Neoscapteriscus mole crickets are considered pests, and various biological controls have been used.
- Mole crickets have been used as food in West Java, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and the Philippines.
- Their resemblance to mammalian moles and pygmy mole crickets is an example of convergent evolution for burrowing.
A Long and Shifting Taxonomic Identity
The mole skink's scientific identity has been one of the most turbulent in southeastern herpetology. S.F. Just twelve years later, Edward Drinker Cope introduced a second species, P. onocrepis, from the peninsula. But the story did not end there. Today the species encompasses five recognized subspecies, each tethered to a narrow geographic slice of the southeastern landscape.
Conservation Pressures and Protected Status
Three of the five mole skink subspecies now carry formal protection, reflecting the severe pressure their restricted ranges face. The primary drivers of decline are straightforward but relentless: residential sprawl, commercial construction, and agricultural expansion are steadily erasing the sandy scrub and sandhill habitats these lizards depend on. A second, more directly human-caused threat is the over-collection of specimens by herpetological enthusiasts, which removes individuals from already small populations. The remaining two subspecies—the peninsula and northern mole skinks—are comparatively common, though they remain elusive in the wild. The northern form extends its range into southern Alabama and Georgia. Notably, the bluetail coexists in the same Florida scrub habitat as the equally endangered sand skink, yet the two avoid direct competition by foraging in different zones.
Life in the Sand: Habitat and Behavior
Mole skinks are creatures of the sandy understory, favoring sandhill and scrub ecosystems across the southeastern United States. Rather than basking openly on rocks or logs, these lizards prefer to remain buried beneath the surface, and they show a particular fondness for the upper layers of Southeastern pocket gopher mounds, where loose soil provides both shelter and warmth. The bluetail subspecies, a small cylindrical lizard measuring roughly nine to fifteen centimeters, displays a fascinating locomotor adaptation: its legs are noticeably reduced and serve only for surface movement. When moving through sand, the animal essentially propels its body forward in a swimming motion, rendering its legs nearly irrelevant. Coloration shifts with age and season—juveniles sport a vivid blue tail comprising just over half their total length, while older or regenerated tails fade to pinkish tones. During breeding, males flash a bold orange pattern along their flanks. When threatened, a mole skink will first present its tail to a predator; if that fails, it falls limp and plays dead.
Reproduction and the Tending of Eggs
The reproductive cycle of the mole skink is compact yet revealing of the species' life history. Young lizards reach sexual maturity after just one year, a relatively rapid transition for a small reptile. Mating takes place during the winter months, a timing that may help synchronize egg development with the coming spring. In spring, the female digs a shallow nest cavity—no more than thirty centimeters below the ground's surface—and deposits a clutch of three to seven eggs. What distinguishes mole skinks from many other lizards is the female's subsequent behavior: rather than abandoning the clutch, she returns to tend the nest throughout the entire incubation period, which lasts between thirty-one and fifty-one days. This parental care, while brief in absolute terms, represents a significant investment in offspring survival. The shallow depth of the nest likely reflects the sandy substrate of the species' preferred habitats, where deep excavation would be energetically costly. The combination of a modest clutch size, a single annual breeding event in winter, and the female's dedicated nest-tending paints a picture of a species that invests heavily in each reproductive cycle.
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