Orthoptera of North Carolina
Scientific Name: Common Name:
Family (Alpha):
« »
View Gryllidae Members: NC Records

Cycloptilum pigrum Love & Walker, 1979 - Reluctant Scaly Cricket

No image for this species.
Taxonomy
Family: Gryllidae Subfamily: Mogoplistinae Tribe: Mogoplistini
Comments: One of sixteen species in this genus that occur in North America north of Mexico (Love and Walker, 1979), four of which have been recorded in North Carolina (not including pigrum). Cycloptilum pigrum belongs to the Bidens Complex of the Squamosum Species Group of Love and Walker (1979).
Species Status: According to Love and Walker (1979), Cycloptilum prigrum belongs to complex of species formerly identified as C. bidens. Fulton (1951) also described two forms of bidens based on differences in both song and habitat. One of them has a call rate of 4 chirps per second, which appears to correspond to the song described for true bidens by Love and Walker. However, Fulton described the habitat for that species as beach dunes, which corresponds more closely with the habitat for C. pigrum. Fulton's other form has a chirp rate of 2 per second, which matches pigrum more closely, but he gives the habitat as low undergrowth in woodlands, especially pine lands, a close match to the habitats described by Love and Walker for true bidens and C. tardum. More studies need to be conducted to resolve the taxonomy of this group.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: BugGuide, Google Images,  iNaturalist, GBIFSINA 448a.htm                                                                                  
Comments: A very small, mottled brown Scaly Cricket. The general color is light reddish brown but the scales are blackish or dark gray, producing a mottled appearance overall, especially in unworn individuals (Hebard, 1931). While members of the Bidens Species Group are easily distinguished from C. trigonipalpum and slossoni based on structural features (see below) and by a distinctive brown blotch located on the outer edge of the wings in the males, members of this group are themselves probably indistinguishable based on coloration or markings in general. Instead, they are best distinguished by the songs of the male, although there are at least some structural differences that distinguish females of bidens from the other species in this complex (Love and Walker, 1979).
Distribution in North Carolina
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Adult Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

Click on graph to enlarge
Habitats and Life History
Habitats:
Diet:
Observation Methods:
Abundance/Frequency:
Adult Phenology:
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status:
Natural Heritage Program Ranks:
State Protection:
Comments: