Spotted Ground Cricket (Allonemobius maculatus)
Song of a Spotted Ground Cricket (scroll down for explanation and additional recordings!).
Preferring the leaf litter of deciduous woodlands in areas with sandy soils, the Spotted Ground Cricket can be a challenge to find. They are gorgeous little ground crickets that appear to have broken, light-colored eye-rings (enlarge the image to the left). A close look at either sex reveals a splendid color palette of deep reds, dark lavenders, and blackish-browns. This species seems to be expanding its range to the north and has been recently documented in northeastern Ohio.
Spotted Ground Crickets are found from northern New Jersey west through Pennsylvania to the southeastern tip of South Dakota. Then south through the eastern-quarter of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. Then east to the central panhandle of Florida and north to New Jersey. The range does not appear to include the coastal plain of the Southeast.
Song: A lilting, continuous series of 5-7 chirps that are separated by the length of one chirp. This brief-pausing gate is very distinctive and helpful in separating the song of this species from that of the Carolina Ground Cricket. Male Spotted Ground Crickets sing softly from the leaf litter and can be easily overlooked — their songs can be drowned out by louder singers.
Sonogram of a Spotted Ground Cricket. © Wil Hershberger.
A tremendous Thank You! to Lisa Rainsong and Wendy Partridge for finding, collecting, and shipping this species to me so that I could prepare this page.
Spotted Ground Cricket
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Navigate to Species Pages:
Spring and Fall Field Cricket
Southern Wood Cricket
Southeastern Field Cricket
Eastern Striped Cricket
Japanese Burrowing Cricket
Ground Crickets (Nemobiinae):
Allard’s Ground Cricket
Carolina Ground Cricket
Confused Ground Cricket
Striped Ground Cricket
Southern Ground Cricket
Sphagnum Ground Cricket
Variegated Ground Cricket
Spotted Ground Cricket
Tinkling Ground Cricket
Cuban Ground Cricket
Tree Crickets (Oecanthinae):
Black-horned Tree Cricket
Forbes’s Tree Cricket
Broad-winged Tree Cricket
Davis’s Tree Cricket
Fast-calling Tree Cricket
Four-spotted Tree Cricket
Narrow-winged Tree Cricket
Pine Tree Cricket
Snowy Tree Cricket
Two-spotted Tree Cricket
Trigs and Bush Crickets (Eneopterinae & Trigonidiinae):
Jumping Bush Cricket
Columbian Trig
Handsome Trig
Say’s Trig
Thomas’s Trig
Slow-tinkling Trig
Mole Crickets (Gryllotalpidae):
Northern Mole Cricket
Southern Mole Cricket
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Saltmarsh Meadow Katydid
Short-winged Meadow Katydid
Slender Meadow Katydid
Woodland Meadow Katydid
Black-sided Meadow Katydid
Long-tailed Meadow Katydid
Straight-lanced Meadow Katydid
Agile Meadow Katydid
Dusky-faced Meadow Katydid
Stripe-faced Meadow Katydid
Nimble Meadow Katydid
Black-legged Meadow Katydid
Common Meadow Katydid
Gladiator Meadow Katydid
Handsome Meadow Katydid
Lesser Pine Meadow Katydid
Long-spurred Meadow Katydid
Red-headed Meadow Katydid
Coneheads (Copiphorinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Round-tipped Conehead
Nebraska Conehead
Robust Conehead
Slightly Musical Conehead
Sword-bearing Conehead
False Robust Conehead
Marsh Conehead
Black-nosed Conehead
True Katydids (Pseudophyllinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Common True Katydid
False Katydids (Phaneropterinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
Clicker Round-winged Katydid
Common Virtuoso Katydid
Rattler Round-winged Katydid
Oblong-winged Katydid
Great Angle-wing
Lesser Angle-wing
Broad-winged Bush Katydid
Curved-tailed Bush Katydid
Fork-tailed Bush Katydid
Northern Bush Katydid
Texas Bush Katydid
Treetop Bush Katydid
Modest Katydid
Shield-backed Katydids (Tettigoniinae):
FAMILY DESCRIPTION
American Shieldback
Least Shieldback
Protean Shieldback
Robust Shieldback
Roesel’s Katydid
Band-winged Grasshoppers (Oedipodinae):
Boll’s & Carolina Grasshoppers
Marsh Meadow Grasshopper