Black field Cricket (female)

The Cricket life span is dependent on temperature and environmental conditions, but they generally live for 2-3 months. Higher temperatures will decrease their life span but increase growth rate. A cricket will usually reach sexual maturity around 5-6 weeks depending on temperate and environmental conditions. The short lifecycle of the cricket means that they must continually produce young crickets to maintain the colony. Male actively seeks the female, or attracts the female with a chirping sound made by rubbing the serrated edges of his forewings (stridulation). Fast chirping is made when a threatening male approaches, and a slower chirping is made to entice a female to mate. Mating takes place and the male fertilizes female eggs. The female lays eggs approximately 1cm into damp earth or organic material. When conditions are suitable a cricket can lay eggs every second week throughout most of their adult life. Eggs hatch approximately 11-14 days later (when bred at around 30 degrees Celsius). The young are approximately 2-3mm in length and are small replicates of their parents called pinheads or nymphs. As the crickets grow they need to shed their skin (moulting) having a number of nymph stages. A cricket that has moulted is white/yellow in color and is susceptible to being eaten until its exoskeleton (outer body casing) hardens.

I have trained my colleagues well! If they see something interesting, they go fetch me! This spotting is a result of that :D