cricket mutation?

[Galapoheros]

I raise my own feeders. I was feeding out a cricket the other day and saw that it had really short back legs. I regretted feeding it out. I found 2 more, they are on the right, the normal one is on the left. I will prob find more, I have 1000s. I'm going to try to find enough and isolate them, breed them and see what happens. It'd be nice to have crix that don't escape as easily. These are Sup crix btw. I really like these, no smell at all over here, except a cat that snuck in an hour ago and sprayed something, I hate that. I just realized it might be poss that they lost their back legs before a molt and grew back smaller ones with the next molt. But I would bet that's not the case, have to wait and see.

[Introvertebrate]

They're Gryllus assimilis? Where did you get them?

[AzJohn]

I've seen the same thing. I imagine that it is some attempt to get a hybrid feeder that will have some immunuty to the cricket disease. (not sure if it's even possible, total guess on my part). Maybe the feeder company is trying to slowly switch over to the new cricket. That way people don't freak out when all of the crickets are new at once.

[Introvertebrate]

By all accounts Gryllus assimilis is completely immune to the cricket disease. I'm not aware of them having shorter legs though.

[ZephAmp]

This species isn't G. assimilis; it's another species of potentially African origin that is the "super cricket". G. assimilis is what the cricket breeders are switching over to, though.

[lizardminion]

Well, after several thousand years of domestication, we say goodbye by to Acheta domestica, huh...

[ZergFront]

Super crickets, huh? I'll have to put an order of them in next time. Right now I have more feeders than mouths for weeks. X-D

Is there a really large cricket species available for bulk purchase in the US? I can't even find a colony of field crickets. I'm always trying to expand my variation of feeders. I'm researching green banana roaches now.

[Introvertebrate]

This species isn't G. assimilis; it's another species of potentially African origin that is the "super cricket". G. assimilis is what the cricket breeders are switching over to, though.

Maybe its the "Crazy Red" that's mentioned on Ghann's website?

http://www.ghann.com/gryllus_info.cfm

[Galapoheros]

Yeah Kyle found that at Ghann's site, a local pet store was selling them as feeders, many stores were selling them and I think some still do. But are these wild in Florida? I've seen the info on the internet, people will quote it but I just don't know what to believe atm.

[ZephAmp]

Yeah Kyle found that at Ghann's site, a local pet store was selling them as feeders, many stores were selling them and I think some still do. But are these wild in Florida? I've seen the info on the internet, people will quote it but I just don't know what to believe atm.

From the cricket species I saw in Sorrento, Florida, I can't recall any of them looking remotely like the "super crix." I did, however, see a few G. assimilis out there.

[zonbonzovi]

"Primarily in tropical regions, but sometimes imported into other areas with produce or cargo. Established in Peninsular Florida, southernmost Texas, and near the coast in southern California."

From: http://bugguide.net/node/view/245323

More: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/483a.htm

[Galapoheros]

Hey Zon I found another range map yesterday that pinpointed the so called population in California but I can't find it right now. Yeah Zeph, I'm a little puzzled too so far because I've seen pics of ones in Florida and well, I know color is not that important but even besides the color, the shape of the head the bulk of them, they just look diff to me also. Might as well just go with it atm though.

[Tarantel]

Just be careful if it starts shooting laser beams out of its eyes or absorbing the other crickets powers.

[Galapoheros]

Here are a couple of short-legged mature males. They aren't going to make "any" noise with those. Hmm, no noise, no smelly die-offs, can't jump very high, sounds good to me! 'll try the breeding thing and see how it goes. Hope they aren't sterile of course, and they won't need to make noise with the females already close by, I would guess anyway.




Here's a pic next to a normal male.

[cacoseraph]

pretty awesome, hopefully something cool will come of it