Episode 72: Fall Field Cricket – Voice of the Wild

This is Brodie with Illinois Extension and I’m here with a new “voice of the wild”

A Big, dark brown and black cricket - among the largest in our area. And a voracious omnivore, eating seeds and little grubs alike. They begin singing mid summer and sing until the frost. They seem quiet outside, but anyone who’s had one drawn to the warmth of their garage or home can tell you that they are very very loud and very good at hiding. This is the fall field cricket

The fall field cricket is virtually identical to the spring field cricket, which calls in the spring; but they’re an entirely different species. Though they look and sound the same, their entire lifecycle is roughly opposite of each other - when the fall field cricket is a calling adult, the spring field cricket is preparing to spend the winter as a jouvenile…and When the spring field cricket matures, the fall field cricket has only just hatched out of the eggs they overwintered in. Here’s the fall field cricket again.

Thank you to the Macaulay library at the Cornell lab for today’s sound. Learn more about voice of the wild at go.illinois.edu/VOW