Cricket (insect)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Crickets" redirects here. For the sport, see Cricket. For other uses, see Cricket (disambiguation).

Cricket
Common black cricket (Gryllus assimilis)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Superfamily:	Grylloidea
Family:	Gryllidae Bolívar, 1878
Subfamilies
See Taxonomy section

Crickets, family Gryllidae (also known as "true crickets"), are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers, and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets (family Tettigoniidae) and Weta (families Anostostomatidae and Rhaphidophoridae). They have somewhat flattened bodies and long antennae. There are more than 900 species of crickets.^[1] They tend to be nocturnal^[2] and are often confused with grasshoppers because they have a similar body structure including jumping hind legs. Crickets are harmless to humans.