The burrow morphology of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae): terminology and comparisons

Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2664v1
Subject Areas
Animal Behavior, Entomology
Keywords
orthoptera, gryllotalpa, mole cricket, burrow, morphology, bioacoustics
Copyright
© 2016 Baker
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Baker E. 2016. The burrow morphology of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae): terminology and comparisons. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2664v1

Abstract

Since the publication of Baker (2016) three additional burrow casts, unknown to the author, were located in the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) collection by George Beccaloni. These casts were provisionally identified as Gryllotalpa vineae. In order to establish whether this identification was correct a literature survey of the casts of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) was conducted. Through this process a standardised terminology for mole cricket burrows has been established.

The application of eccentricity measurements to burrow structures has identified measurements that can potentially be used to discriminate those species for which suitably detailed burrow descriptions have been made available. It is demonstrated that the eccentricity of the restrictions on either side of the bulb, as well as the eccentricity of the horn opening, are useful diagnostic characters.

Author Comment

This is the first draft of this paper, that summaries the burrow morphology of mole crickets. Before submission to a journal I would prefer to have more burrow casts from known species to confirm the preliminary results.