Photo 159490, (c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY)

Attribution © Ken-ichi Ueda
some rights reserved
Uploaded by kueda kueda
Source Flickr
Original http://www.flickr.com/photos/18024068@N00/7764231728
Associated observations

Photos / Sounds

What

West Coast Ant Cricket (Myrmecophilus oregonensis)

Observer

kueda

Date

August 11, 2012 08:56 PM PDT

Description

These tiny crickets live inside ant colonies, feeding on… ant excrement. Well, not poop, I don't think, but some other form ant secretion. Gross AND awesome. And small, about 5 mm long. I'm basing this ID on the range descriptions in this paper (entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/s391lh20.pdf), which describes M. manni as not occurring west of the Cascades / Sierras / Tehachapis, except at San Diego. Not sure if they should be considered current or not.

Sizes