Giant Sand Treader Camel Cricket

Description:

Sand Treader Camel Crickets are found only in a few sandy biomes of the Southwest Desert. These crickets are omnivorous. They begin foraging at dusk and have been observed to feed on dead and live plant material, insects, and mammal fecal material. They are fossorial (burrow-digging) insects. Their large hind legs sport thorny growths called ‘sand baskets’ that help them to push sand out of burrows (see third picture). Males may build a burrow in the evening, and are known to have ‘harems’ of females. The male’s burrow will be visited by several females over the course of the night, and the male, too, will visit other burrows during the course of an evening. Males are usually bigger than females and can reach over 4 cm in length. This one was about 3 cm long. They were quite numerous along the trail in a broad valley near the Hidden Arch (see last picture). They were seen after dark around 9 PM. This one is carrying some kind of plant material. It also has several red mites on it's body. Family Rhaphidophoridae (Camel Crickets), Subfamily Ceuthophilinae (Sand-treader Crickets).

Habitat:

Sandy soil in a small valley, Arches National Park, Utah.

Notes:

These can be found in Sandy Ecosystems in Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. https://www.handsontheland.org/grsa/reso... http://bugguide.net/node/view/149775 http://bugguide.net/node/view/243157 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3503534?seq=...