One-Spined Mole Cricket - Bir Tikenduu Ayucha

One-spined mole cricket - Gryllotalpa unispina Sauss.

Large brown insects with velvety bodies, small heads, short antennae, and digging front legs that resemble the front paws of a mole (the literal translation of the Latin name for mole crickets is "cricket-mole"). Mole crickets are capable of flying, but they need sufficiently warm air to take off; otherwise, their wing muscles cannot function, which is why they fly rarely. They swim well.

During the day, mole crickets hide in underground burrows, coming to the surface on warm evenings and at night, producing chirping sounds, often crawling or flying towards light. Both males and females can produce chirping sounds, but these sounds are very weak and inaudible to humans.

While digging, they damage plant roots and consume them. Mole crickets live in the soil, constantly aerating it with their large front legs. They primarily feed on the root vegetables of plants, earthworms, and insects.

Mole crickets cause damage by gnawing at the roots and root collars of plants and consuming sown seeds. They sometimes eat seedlings. Both adult insects and larvae cause harm.

One female can lay up to 500 eggs. The first-year larvae hibernate in a vertical burrow at a depth of 70-80 cm.

Mole crickets are moisture-loving insects. They live in sandy, sunlit soils, on warm plains. However, they avoid dry places and retreat to moist coastal soils during dry years. The insect primarily leads an underground lifestyle, rarely coming to the surface, mainly at night. Mole crickets hibernate in the ground at depths of up to 2 meters or more, or in compost heaps. They dig underground tunnels in the upper layers of soil in flood meadows, gardens, and vegetable patches.

Many cultures have riddles about insects, including one about the mole cricket: "An insect like a mole: it digs burrows and lives in them." In Tibetan medicine, insects were eagerly used to prepare medicines for various diseases. For example, the mole cricket was used as a diuretic.

Distribution: the territory of the Issyk-Kul basin, the Pre-Fergana regions of Kyrgyzstan.

Insects of Kyrgyzstan