Bug FAQCommon Short-tailed Cricket
Anurogryllus arboreus · Order: Orthoptera · Family: Gryllidae
The adult common short-tailed cricket is pale brown and has a reduced ovipositor; it initially has wings but loses them and becomes flightless. It digs a solitary soil burrow, carrying soil to the surface with its mandibles, and is native to the southern and southeastern United States.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Adult common short-tailed crickets are pale brown and have a vestigial ovipositor. When they first mature they have wings, but they soon shed them and become flightless.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They live alone in a burrow they dig, moving soil to the surface with their mandibles.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it comes from
They are native to the southern and southeastern United States.
Source: Wikipedia
Lookalikes
It looks like other short-tailed crickets in its genus, which are also pale brown with a vestigial ovipositor.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 11 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey, North Carolina, Mississippi.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
Status: native in North America; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist
Months it is reported in the US
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
Where is the common short-tailed cricket found?
It is native to the southern and southeastern United States.
Source: Wikipedia
What does this cricket look like?
Adults are pale brown with a reduced ovipositor, and they lose their wings soon after maturing.
Source: Wikipedia
Where does it live?
It digs and lives alone in a soil burrow, carrying soil to the surface with its mandibles.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Gryllidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anurogryllus_arboreus
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-28 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-28.