Mole Crickets In Florida And Neighboring States

Mole crickets are large, near-cylindrical crickets with mole-like digging forelimbs (fig. 1, 2). The adults have wings, and many are powerful, though clumsy, fliers. Mole crickets are most often seen when they end their flights at lights (or in swimming pools, where they swim rapidly on the surface, buoyed up by their short, dense, unwettable pile). Otherwise mole crickets remain in tunnel systems in the soil, their presence revealed chiefly by long tracks of pushed up soil associated with their tunneling just beneath the surface. Three of the 4 species of mole crickets occurring in southeastern United States were accidentally introduced from South America and belong to the genus Scapteriscus. The fourth is the northern mole cricket, Neocurtilla hexadactyla (Perty), a native species.