Prairie Mole Cricket
North America’s largest cricket sings from a carefully shaped prairie burrow rather than from a grass stem.
Artwork inspired by Birger Sandzén
Male prairie mole crickets excavate acoustic burrows that amplify their remarkably low spring calls. Oversized spade-like forelegs reveal the underground life of an insect that may be heard across a prairie before it is ever seen.
Stay on established routes: soil compaction, conversion, and repeated disturbance remove the very structure this subterranean specialist needs. Listen after sunset on warm April and May evenings in high-quality tallgrass prairie east of the Flint Hills.
- Best clue
- Huge burrowing cricket whose spring courtship sounds like a low vibrating hum
- Habitat
- deep, intact or lightly disturbed tallgrass-prairie soil
- Regional status
- Native Great Plains specialist
Quick guide
- Primary field mark
- Shovel-shaped forelegs
- Independent mark
- Tallgrass stronghold
Four checks for Prairie Mole Cricket
- Take the full view
- Look for a distant view of Prairie Mole Cricket should support huge burrowing cricket whose spring courtship sounds like a low vibrating hum.
- Find corroboration
- Check require low pulsing chorus before settling on the identification; large reddish body provides a useful cross-check together with tallgrass stronghold before accepting the identification.
- Match place and season
- Deep, intact or lightly disturbed tallgrass-prairie soil; spring evenings.
- Protect the observation
- Include the perch or host plant with Prairie Mole Cricket, then step away without collecting or stripping vegetation.
Good to know
Males turn carefully shaped burrows into acoustic amplifiers, producing spring calls so low and powerful that the insect is usually heard long before it is seen.
Notice these
- Shovel-shaped forelegs
- Low pulsing chorus
- Large reddish body
- Tallgrass stronghold