Gryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray

Weissman, David B. & Gray, David A., 2019, Crickets of the genus Gryllus in the United States (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllinae), Zootaxa 4705 (1), pp. 1-277 : 34

Gryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray

Crazy Red Field Cricket

Figs 14–16 , 54 , 62, Table 1

2012 Gryllus locorojo Weissman & Gray. Zootaxa 3504: 67–88. Type locality: USA: California, Los Angeles Co., Compton , Rainbow Mealworms. Type deposited in CAS, Entomology type #18657.

Distribution. Known only from pet food stores and commercial cricket farms in North America, Europe, and western Asia. Original locality still unknown, but most likely somewhere in South America, perhaps Ecuador ( Weissman et al. 2012).

Recognition characters and song. Body size medium-large, long or short hind wings, reddish/brownish colored ( Fig. 14 ), head frequently with three or four longitudinal stripes. Song variable ( Figs 15 , 16 ; R 12–3 ), usually 2 (range 1–3) p/c, less than 1 chirp/second, PR 25–42 at 25°C.

Discussion. We repeat here the same concerns as under G. bimaculatus . As discussed in Weissman et al. (2012), this is one of two non-native Gryllus (the other being G. bimaculatus ) that was being commercially raised in the US, in 2012, and shipped to US pet food stores for sale to the general public. Such activities will invariably result in the release, either by accident or on purpose, of this species into the environment, similar to what has probably occurred with Acheta domesticus (Weissman et al. 1980) . The effect of such releases is unknown, as is whether or not these crickets can survive and multiply outside of commercial farms. We discussed ( Weissman et al. 2012) why oversight by federal and state regulatory agencies is inadequate and suspect that such surveillance has only gotten worse, since 2012, given continued tightening US federal budgets and malaise from both state and federal regulators. Additionally, we have no idea what the current commercial status is for these two non-native species because they are more aggressive and cannibalistic than the replaced A. domesticus , and tend to bite the lizard they are being fed to. Thus, the pet-food industry may be voluntarily replacing G. locorojo with the ecologically preferred ( Weissman et al. 2012) Gryllodes sigillatus . We present G. locorojo here in case they establish feral populations encountered by inquiring biologist. Similar concerns were presented by Barranco (2012), who discussed the possible invasive situation of “ G. assimilis ”, which was being sold for pet food in Spain. As discussed in Weissman et al. (2012), this is probably G. locorojo , although inquiries to P. Barranco, in 2013 and 2014, as to the number of p/c in the calling song of their cricket, which would easily distinguish true G. assimilis from G. locorojo , went unanswered. G. locorojo has been used for studies on calling song and phonotactic selectivity ( Rothbart & Hennig 2012) as well as courtship song ( Vedenina & Pollack 2012).

DNA. Multilocus G2159, from a commercial pet food store, maps ( Fig. 6 , p. 28 ) this species closest to G. assimilis and G. multipulsator , despite very different calling songs between G. locorojo and the other two species. However, as noted in Weissman et al. (2019), courtship songs of these three species are similar in having a doubletick structure unlike any other US Gryllus for which courtship song is known to us.

Figures

FIGURE 6. Phylogenetic arrangement of taxa redrawn from Gray et al. (2019). Taxa in grey text are either not considered here because they are not US Gryllus, or are considered only briefly (Pet Store Group; G. bryanti).

FIGURE 12. Five second calling song of G. bimaculatus (R12-14) commercial pet store, at 25°C.

FIGURE 14. Head on view of male G. locorojo showing head stripes.

FIGURE 15. Five second calling song of G. locorojo: (R12-3) commercial pet store, at 22°C.

FIGURE 16. One second spectrogram of G. locorojo, same male as in Fig. 15.

FIGURE 28. Five second waveforms of calling songs of (A) G. pennsylvanicus and (B) G. firmus. G. pennsylvanicus (R04-110) Whatcom Co., WA (S04-91), at 25°C. G. firmus: (R03-255) Gainesville, FL (S03-85), at 25°C.

FIGURE 54. ITS2 gene tree. G. multipulsator sample: S03-41 (G577); G. assimilis samples: S10-64 (G1901); S16-12 (G3367, G3373); G. locorojo sample: type locality (Rainbow Mealworms); G. veintinueve samples: S02-39 (G134); S07-21 (G1139); S07-27 (G1140, G1211); S09-71 (G1451); OK, Love Co., Hwy 32 at Boggy Creek (2015-055).