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Pygmy Mole Cricket
Xya sp.
15.4558, 119.92
Field Notes
Description:
Tridactylidae; Xya sp. Xya is a genus of Pygmy Mole Crickets. The specimen shown here is tiny, but looks very robust. It is glossy black all over its head, thorax and abdomen. There appear to be some very small tiny flecks of white, but unfortunately the camera flash caused many reflections and I really cannot tell which is a white mark and which is just a reflection of the flash. The legs are a golden bronze colour as are the four cerci. The antennae appear to have 10 segments which are glossy black. The segments seem to connect together with a kind of ball and socket arrangement and the lip or rim of each socket is white, giving the antennae a striking appearance.
Habitat:
This cricket was spotted in a rice field. It was sitting on a rice leaf at a time when the crop was still young and not yet fully mature. I could see some similar specimens around me, when I was taking the photos, but I could not risk stomping around in the rice at this vulnerable stage in its growth. So I settled for the photos you see.
Notes:
Wikipedia lists 62 species in the Genus: Xya (from The Orthoptera Species File). There is obviously a great variety of species and some of them can be seen in inaturalist.org
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