The Orthoptera order is large, but few suspect how large it is. It is also good if you distinguish between grasshoppers and locusts. Well, if you still recognize crickets and a bear, you can consider yourself an advanced entomologist :).
In general, Orthoptera can be divided into 2 suborders according to antennae length. Short-necked (all sorts of filly and locusts, in English grasshoppers and locusts) make sounds with their hind legs, and long-necked ones (grasshoppers, crickets, etc. - in English katydids and crickets) sing by friction of the elytra or elytra on the wings. The short-necked ones lay many eggs in the soil, and the grasshoppers spread the eggs on the plants one at a time. I wrote about other differences already here, so if you are interested, take a look!
In addition to the well-known crickets (family Gryllidae), the British include a number of other families in the category of crickets. Relatively recently, representatives of the so-called Jerusalem crickets, which do not seem to be found in the Middle East, have been allocated to a separate family Stenopelmatidae.
The family includes more than fifty species, many of which are very poorly studied. In Borneo, I managed to take live pictures of the most interesting representative of these animals - Sia ferox. In total, 6 species are known in the genus Sia, and S. ferox, which lives on the islands of the Malay Archipelago (mainly in Borneo, Sumatra and Java), was first described in 1861. However, very little is still known about the life of this insect. They live in very remote regions of the tropics, are nocturnal and do not gather in flocks. But our expedition to Borneo was lucky. We met both males and females. Especially fascinating was the Sia's hunt for cicadas. These insects work out their specific name in full (ferox = fierce, cruel from Latin). With their most powerful jaws (God forbid they bite!), They briskly dug into the hapless cicadas attracted by the artificial light around our camp. At the same time, only the fleshy back was eaten away, after which the sia fiercely bit into the next victim.
If Sia herself faced danger (for example, I caught her and then let her go), she pretended to be dead for a long time, lying on her back with outstretched legs:
This is to represent the size (not the largest individual):
I wrote about the related family Anostostomatidae (king crickets) here.
