Snowy Tree Crickets by Caleigh Ryan-Melville

Snowy Tree Cricket (Oecanthus niveus) Photo: Caleigh Ryan-Melville

Green, semi-transparent, communicators: three words that describe Oecanthus niveus. I first discovered this cute little insect as I was pruning some suckers off a tree in my front yard back in September. After quickly taking a few pictures, I uploaded them to the app, Picture Insect, to help me identify the insect that is commonly known as a snowy tree cricket.

Part of a larger order called Orthoptera, Oecanthus niveus are omnivorous creatures, feeding on leaves, fungi, fruit, and smaller insects, such as aphids [5]. Their chewing mouthparts create damage on leaves that appears as though a bite has been taken out of them. 

While snowy tree crickets aid home gardeners by eating aphids, they are actually a household pest due to their habit of eating fabric. To prevent crickets from entering the home, maintain weeds in ornamental beds, keep piles of wood or rock away from the home, seal cracks around the foundation, and ensure there are no spaces at the bottom of exterior doors. If a cricket does enter the home, it can be vacuumed [1].

Snowy Tree Cricket (Oecanthus niveus) Photo: Caleigh Ryan-Melville

Female Oecanthus niveus have a narrower body, while males have a rounder abdomen. Males have a marking along their posterior abdomen that consists of three lines that look like a diagonal, upside-down F. Based on the abdomen shape and marking, the cricket in my yard appears to be a male [4].

Oecanthus niveus has one of the identifiable characteristics for insects in the class orthoptera: long, “hind legs modified for jumping” [2].  A common characteristic of the Gryllidae family that is shared by the snow tree cricket is the antennae that are as long as the body (if not longer.) This family consists of “true crickets,” and they are the only family capable of maintaining constant pitch to communicate with other cricket [3].

 

Male.

Drawing by B. B. Fulton (from Plate V, c, Fulton 1915).

During my deep dive into the snowy-tree cricket, I was interested to find that they are also known as the “thermometer cricket” since the frequency (or speed) of their chirps change with their temperature. The recordings on the Orthopterist Society’s website (linked here) demonstrate that the chirps become more frequent in warmer weather than cooler weather. You could actually do some math to use the number of chirps per minute as a measure of outdoor temperature [4].

 

References

1. Colorado State University. (2015). Colorado pest identification handbook (8th ed.). Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/ipm/Colorado%20Pest%20ID%20Handbook%208-18-15.pdf
2. North Carolina State University. (n.d.). Order Orthoptera. Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/order-orthoptera/
3. North Carolina State University (n.d.) Family Gryllidae. Retrieved September 29, 2024, from https://genent.cals.ncsu.edu/insect-identification/order-orthoptera/family-gryllidae/
4. Orthopterist Society. (n.d.) Snowy Tree Cricket. Orthopterist Society. https://orthsoc.org/sina/585a.htm
5. University of Wyoming. (n.d.). Oecanthus niveus (DeGeer). Retrieved September 29, 2024, from

https://www.uwyo.edu/entomology/grasshoppers/colorado/fact-sheets/oecanthus.html#:~:text=In%20Colorado%20Oecanthus%20niveus%20(DeGeer,to%20the%20 eastern%20 mountain%20 foothills.