Jemima Cricket

Time of the essence today and on a quick garden safari with very little around I came back to my Dahlia patch. There was a bee but it soon disappeared and my little Jiminy/Jemima Cricket from yesterday was still on the same flower.

Hardly surprising really if you look at her back leg which appears to be missing a foot so her jumping capabilities are somewhat restricted! Caught napping I soon livened her up by a quick tickle with a leaf to wake her up - no wonder she was pointing where I should go or possibly giving me the finger to clear off!

I liked this shot because of the clarity of her ovipositor, the scythe like shape at the end of her abdomen with which it lays it's eggs in the soil. Where I had always thought it smooth it's now apparent that it has got tiny little teeth on it's edge. On it's far front leg you can see it's tiny ear, a tightly stretched membrane that is a sound receptor. Crickets have a lot of predators: spiders, beetles, birds, some wasps and small mammals so I don't hold out much hope for her in the long term with a missing foot!