These tiny crickets live inside ant colonies, feeding on⦠ant excrement. Well, not poop, I don't think, but some other form ant secretion. Gross AND awesome. And small, about 5 mm long. I'm basing this ID on the range descriptions in this paper (entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s391lh20.pdf), which describes M. manni as not occurring west of the Cascades / Sierras / Tehachapis, except at San Diego. Not sure if they should be considered current or not.
These tiny crickets live inside ant colonies, feeding on⦠ant excrement. Well, not poop, I don't think, but some other form ant secretion. Gross AND awesome. And small, about 5 mm long. I'm basing this ID on the range descriptions in this paper (entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s391lh20.pdf), which describes M. manni as not occurring west of the Cascades / Sierras / Tehachapis, except at San Diego. Not sure if they should be considered current or not.
These tiny crickets live inside ant colonies, feeding on⦠ant excrement. Well, not poop, I don't think, but some other form ant secretion. Gross AND awesome. And small, about 5 mm long. I'm basing this ID on the range descriptions in this paper (entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s391lh20.pdf), which describes M. manni as not occurring west of the Cascades / Sierras / Tehachapis, except at San Diego. Not sure if they should be considered current or not.
Apparently these weird little crickets live in ant nests and survive by munching secretions from the bodies of the ants. The ants are not fond of this, and eat the crickets when they catch them, but this must be rare, b/c these guys can really jump. It isn't clear to me whether this is M. manni or M. oregonensis. Some fun reading: * McGowan 2006 * Wheeler 1900, in which Wheeler basically watches crickets lick ants for hours on end and LOVES it. * Henderson 1986