To earn yourself ten shiny new Myrmecos points, be the first to answer this question:
What insect with prominent cerci lays an egg one third her own size?
MYRMECOS
Little Things Matter
Little Things Matter
To earn yourself ten shiny new Myrmecos points, be the first to answer this question:
What insect with prominent cerci lays an egg one third her own size?
A cricket from the family Myrmecophilidae…the ant crickets.
If it’s one from your area, maybe Myrmecophilus pergandei? There are only four species in North America…
I like these little crickets, and only recently learned about their huge eggs. Lots of them in Asia, including a number of arboreals, e.g., M. polyrhachi. And there is a fifth one in NA — I need to track down its current name, but W. M. Wheeler called it M. flavocinctus, noting that it lives with Paratrechina longicornis. I saw it once in Florida when a colony of these got flooded out of a sidewalk crack by lawn sprinklers. It is nearly black with a light pronotal band, like somefirst instar Gryllus. Quite spiffy!
I’m still getting used to the name ending in -us, after decades of being published as “Myrmecophila”.
The labor pain must be horrendous.
Hmmm. Are the eggs the same size as the host’s eggs?
Just for short: You’ve got the most beautiful site, and I am thankful every day for having found it.
Now, I thought it might be one of those crickets and haven’t got nearer to pinpointing it yet, but my best guess at the moment would be Myrmecophilus acervorum, a European cricket called “Ameisengrille” (Antcricket) in German. My guess bases mainly on the fact, that they lay eggs singularly and then only one in 24 hours – sounds to me like a hint…
The other hint might be that they reproduce purely parthogentically, but I’m not quite sure what the relation might be to egg-size.
Pingback: Answer to the Monday Night Mystery – MYRMECOS - Insect Photography - Insect Pictures