Jerusalem Cricket

The Jerusalem Cricket, "Child of the Ground" or "Child of the Earth" is a type of Cricket (Stenopelmatus fuscus). Adults are 30-50mm long, with a humped-back and long antennae. They are wingless and have shiny brown bodies with dark brown bands on abdomen. They eat other insects, plant roots, decaying vegetation, and potato tubers. They are not poisonous and harmless although they may bite if handled roughly.

Jerusalem Crickets live on hill-sides, valley slopes and under rocks from Nebraska to New Mexico & Mexico, north along the pacific coast to Washington and east to Montana.

A photograph of an adult Jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus fuscus).
Photograph by Franco Folini licensed under Creative Commons.

Other names for (or types of) Jerusalem Cricket include:

• Child of the Earth
• Child of the Ground
• Potato bug

Related terms

• Orthoptera

Related pages on this web site

• Grasshoppers and Crickets - Order Orthoptera

See other words beginning with J