Leaf-rolling Cricket

Even though this cricket can't sing, fly or win a beauty contest, he's got some amazing attributes!

I found this Carolina Leaf-roller Cricket racing around while looking for night nectaring moths. He's got antenna that are about 5 times his body length that were just whipping about. His body looks strange because the species does NOT have any wings. My husband found a female the night before, snarfing down aphids in our infested sunflowers. Yes, that's what they eat - yeah!!! This is a rarely seen insect that lives in deciduous forests (our front woods barely qualify). To hide during the day, they roll themselves up in a leaf, tuck in those long antennae, and hinge the leaf with silk from glands in their mouth. They're hiding from their main predator the Katydid Wasp - and there are plenty of those around. There are 600 species of this cricket worldwide, but we only have ONE here in North America. It's Camptonotus carolinensis.