Myrmecophilus pergandei
species of insect
Myrmecophilus pergandei, the eastern ant cricket, is a species of ant cricket in the family Myrmecophilidae. It is found in North America. It is a wingless cricket that is an obligate kleptoparasite of ants living in their nests. They lack both wings and tympanal organs on the front tibia.
Distribution
They have been found in the United States, in the following states:
Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Ant hosts
M. pergandei has been observed with the following ants: Lasius umbratus, Camponotus castaneus, Camponotus chromaiodes, Camponotus herculeanus, Camponotus novaeboracensis, Formica obscuriventris, Formica pallidefulva, Formica subsericea, Aphaenogaster treatae, Crematogaster lineolata, and Tapinoma sessile.
Biology
Ant crickets lives as an inquiline within ants' nests. M. pergandei is known to live with eleven ant species. This specialized way of life has led this insect and its relatives to evolve many morphological differences compared to other orthopterans, including complete absence of wings and hearing organs, and much reduced eyesight, as well as their very small size.
These tiny insects are dark brown with paler bands and prominent cerci, which serve as their primary sensory organs.
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This entry incorporates text from “Myrmecophilus pergandei” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.