Cricket information

Also known as "promote weaving", "tend to weave", "cricket". Insects, Orthoptera, Crambidae. The antennae are longer than the body (carapace). The ovipositor tube of the female is naked. Males are good at chirping and fighting. There are many species, the most common being the Chinese cricket, with a body length of about 20 millimeters. One generation per year. To wing friction pronunciation. Dried body into medicine, warm, taste pungent and salty, toxic, diuretic function, the main edema, urinary incontinence and other conditions. The same family has oil gourd, big coffin head cricket and so on. Because all underground activities, rodent plant stems and leaves, seeds and roots, are agricultural pests.

Crickets (crickets) are Orthoptera (Orthoptera) crickets (Gryllidae) insects, known for their pleasant sound. There are about 2,400 species, and they are 3?50 centimeters (0.12?2 inches) long. Antennae thin, hind feet adapted for jumping, tarsus three-segmented, abdomen with 2 slender sensory appendages (caudal whiskers). Forewings hard and leathery; hindwings membranous, used for flight. Males produce sounds by rubbing a tone file on the forewing against a row of teeth (about 50?250) on the other forewing. The frequency of the sound depends on the number of strikes per second, ranging from 1,500 cycles/second in the largest cricket species to nearly 10,000 cycles/second in the smallest cricket species. The rate of chirping is directly related to temperature and increases with temperature. The most common calls are courtship calls to attract females, courtship calls to induce females to mate, and fighting calls to drive away other males. Both males and females have sensitive hearing apparatus on the tibial segment of the forefoot. Most females lay eggs in the soil or plant stems with slender ovipositors, which can often cause serious damage to plants. In the north, crickets mostly mature in the fall to lay eggs, and then hatch in the following spring, molting 6?12 times to maturity. Adult life span is generally 6?8 weeks.

Crickets subfamily (Gryllinae) of the field cricket genus (Gryllus) and house crickets (Achetadomesticus, the old Gryllusdomesticus) body stout, black or brown, often playing shallow holes; feeding on plants, animals, clothing or mutual mutilation. Field crickets, also known as black crickets, often live in fields or yards, and sometimes come indoors. House crickets have light-colored heads with dark horizontal bands; have been introduced to North America from Europe; found in buildings and garbage dumps; both house and field crickets are widespread and chirp day and night. Sold as bait in the U.S. and used in biological experiments. Field crickets are often found in poetry and literature. For example, Dickens' The Cricket on the Hearth. Nemobiinae, or the subfamily of crickets, are 12 centimeters long and have a series of high-pitched trills, and live in pastoral and forested areas. The striped needle cricket (Nemobiusvittatus) has three dark stripes on its abdomen. Tree crickets subfamily (Oecanthinae) white or green. Wings transparent; beneficial for feeding on aphids, but damages branches when laying eggs; song is a long trill. The snowy white tree cricket (Oecanthusfultoni) is commonly known as the thermometer tree cricket because the number of trills it makes in 15 seconds, plus 40, is approximately equal to the prevailing temperature in Fahrenheit. Species inhabiting trees and shrubs call at night, while grassy species call both day and night. Species of the subfamily Myrmecophilinae are small, 3 to 5 centimeters long, wingless, bow-backed, and live in ant nests. Species of the subfamily Mogoplistinae (wingless scrub crickets) are commonly found in scrubland or under gravel at the water's edge in sandy tropical regions. They are elongated, 5?13 centimeters long, wingless or with small wings, and are covered with transparent, easily erased scales. Species of the subfamily Trigonidiinae (winged scrub crickets) are 4?9 centimeters long, with sword-shaped ovipositors, and live in poolside scrub. Species of the subfamily Eneopterinae (brown scrub crickets) are larger, long, thin, light brown, and are commonly found on trees or in thickets. In the Orient, male crickets are kept in cages to listen to their chirping; in China, cricket fighting has been practiced for centuries. Crickets play an important role in mythology and superstition. It is believed that the presence of a cricket equals good luck and wisdom, and that harming a cricket brings misfortune. A large, brown, fried cricket is sold in the markets of Mandalay, Myanmar, and is often eaten by traveling monks.

Many other insects are also known as crickets in English, such as the zebra, the jerusalemcricket, the molecricket, and the pygmysandcricket.

Edit Species Name

Cricket (xishuai) (Gryllulus; Gryllus) Invertebrate, Insecta, Orthoptera, Crambidae. A promote weaving, northern China, commonly known as crickets night insects, generals, autumn bugs, cockfighting 'tend to weave. Crickets

Crickets mostly small and medium-sized, a few large. Yellowish brown to blackish brown. Head round, thorax wide, filiform antennae slender and easily broken. Chewing mouthparts. Some large jaws developed, strong bite fight. Forefeet and midfeet similar and of the same length; hindfeet well developed, good at jumping; tail whiskers longer. Hearers on the tibial joints of the forefeet are larger on the outside than on the inside. Males are vocal, aggressive, and kill each other. There are articulators on the forewings of males, consisting of scrapers on the wing veins, friction veins and articulation mirrors. The forewings are raised and rubbed from side to side, thus vibrating the articulating mirror and emitting tones. Females are larger, with needle-like or spear-like ovipositor tubes exposed and small wings. Male crickets fight each other for food, to consolidate their territory and to possess females.

Edit Range

About 2,500 species are known in the world, and about 150 species are known in China, including 50 species in Taiwan Province. (Also here the data is questionable: about 1400 species or more have been named in the world, and more than 30 species have been named in China.) Several species are pests of dry crops.

Edit Life Habits

Crickets burrow, often inhabiting the surface of the ground, under the masonry, soil burrows, between the bushes. Night activities. Omnivorous, eating a variety of crops, saplings, vegetables and fruits. Certain behaviors of crickets can be induced by specific external stimuli. In cricket fighting, if you stimulate the mouth whiskers of male crickets with fine soft hairs, it will inspire it to rush to the enemy and fight hard; if you touch its tail hairs, it will cause it to resent, and kick backward with the hind foot tibial joints to show resistance.

Crickets are withdrawn by nature, the general situation is to live independently, never allowed to live with other crickets (males in the mating period also live with another female), so they are intolerable to each other, and once encountered together, will bite and fight. Crickets are known for their good sound and good fighting. In the cricket family, male and female crickets are not "free love" and achieve "a hundred years of good". Which male crickets are brave and good at fighting, beat the other same sex, then it will get to the female cricket possession, so in the cricket family "polygamy" phenomenon is not uncommon. Of course, from the point of view of biological evolution, this is also natural selection, the survival of the fittest, which is conducive to the health and prosperity of the cricket family children and grandchildren. In addition, the cricket's chirp is also quite famous, different tones, frequency can express different meanings, night crickets loud long rhythmic chirping, both to warn the other same sex: this is my territory, you do not invade! At the same time, it beckons the opposite sex: "I'm here, come on!" When another of the same sex trespasses, then it will chirp in a dignified and rapid manner as a stern warning. If the "ultimatum" fails, then in order to seize the territory and the defense of the territory of the murderous war will begin, the two crickets threw open the teeth, stirrups legs and drums wings, the war together, the degree of its intensity, no less than the ancient two countries at war in the most violent physical combat. Cricket's distribution is very wide, almost all over the country, more provinces south of the Yellow River. It likes to inhabit in the slightly moist soil of the mountain slopes, fields, piles of rocks and grass. This insect generally in the summer of August began to chirp, the field is usually in 20 degrees when the chirping is the most joyful, in late October when the climate turns cold, that is, to stop chirping. It occurs 1 generation per year, laying eggs in the soil to overwinter. sound. Male bugs fight, when the two males meet, the first is a vertical wing chirping, in order to strengthen the prestige, and then that is head to head, each open pincer-like mouth biting each other, but also with the foot kick, often in and out of the rolling fight for 3 to 5 rounds. Then, the loser fled noiselessly, the winner is high up wings, proudly loud chirping, seem very proud. Crickets have been bred since ancient times because of their ability to chirp and fight. According to records, Chinese families started to raise crickets in the Tang Dynasty, when both officials in the imperial court and common people liked to bring their own "babies" to compete with each other in their spare time. According to research, the cricket is an ancient insect, at least 140 million years of history. Every quiet summer night, the grass will come bursts of crisp and pleasant chirping sound. Listen, the crickets are having a concert again! The cricket's beautiful song does not come from its good voice, but from its wings. If you look closely, you will see that the cricket is constantly vibrating its wings, is it trying to fly? Of course not, the wings are its vocal organs. On the right wing of the cricket, there is a short spine like a file, and on the left wing, there is a hard spine like a knife. The left and right wings are rubbing against each other. Vibrating the wings will make a pleasant sound. During the breeding season, male crickets will vibrate their wings more vigorously and sing beautifully to find a good match. The king of the song is the long-jawed cricket. Body length of up to 20 millimeters or so, antennae about 35 millimeters long, because of the two large teeth protruding forward, so the name of the long-jawed cricket, commonly known as Kes. In addition to being good at singing, crickets are also very good at fighting.

Edit Growth and Reproduction

Common crickets (such as the Beijing Oil Cricket) occur one generation per year, overwintering with eggs in the soil. Eggs are laid singly in the soil at the edges of field ridges, cemeteries, and haystacks where there are a lot of weeds and the sun is shining. The males build earth burrows to live with the females. Prefer to inhabit in the shade, loose soil, wet environment. When the mouth is too dense, it often kills itself. The peanut big cricket in Guangxi 1 year 1 generation, if the worm in the soil hole overwintering, the next year in March to April, out of the ground, for the peanut seedlings. early June for adult, continue to be harmful. mid to late November, to start overwintering with the worm. Adults and wakame burrows are as deep as 0.6 meters or even deeper. Newly built burrows are simple, with only one escape hole. Before spawning, three to five additional support holes for spawning are built, and the young peanut stems, leaves and seeds are searched for and transported back to the burrow for storage, for rearing the first-hatched worms. The first hatchlings live in groups, and after a few days go out to search for food, each digging holes separately.

Crickets are important agricultural pests in northeastern China, northern China, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China, where they destroy the roots, stems, leaves, fruits and seeds of various crops, and the damage to seedlings is particularly serious. In the south, peanut large crickets destroy peanut seedlings up to 10% to 30%, they also harm corn, jute, tobacco, cotton, soybeans and cassava, often resulting in a lack of seedlings, affecting the harvest.

Edit common species

Chinese cricket (Gryllus chi-nensis). Body length of about 2 centimeters, body black-brown. 1 generation per year, overwintering in the soil with eggs. The male pronator is located near the base of the forewing, and is articulated by wing friction. The auditory apparatus is located on the tibial segment of the forefoot. Burrowing, often in the underground, ground or masonry crevice activities, plant roots, stems, leaves, seeds and fruits, etc., mostly in the night feeding, biting the tender part of the plant near the ground, resulting in a lack of seedlings, is an agricultural pest.

Large coffin crickets (Loxoblemmus doenitzi), head flat, flat at the front end, tilted forward, the male head to the sides obviously protruding;

Oil gourd (Gryllus testaceus), the body of the dark black, glossy, the inner upper part of the two compound eyes with a yellow stripe that goes to the back of the head. The forewings are light brown and also shiny, the hindwings are more developed, and the ovipositor of the female is up to 2 centimeters long. Foraging at night, adults and wakame are harmful to soybeans, sorghum, peanuts, melons, vegetables and other crops. There are many distributions in all provinces of the country.

Editorial medicinal value

Alias crickets, night insects, general bugs, autumn bugs, cockfighting, promote weaving, tend to weave.

Introduction The cricket Gryllulus chinensis Weber, a cricket of the family Crambidae, is used as medicine with the dried whole body. Caught in summer and fall, scalded to death in boiling water and dried in the sun.

Taste and attributes Pungent, salty, warm. Toxic.

Functions and Indications diuretic, blood-breaking, diaphoretic. Used for edema, incontinence, urinary tract stones, cirrhosis ascites, sore throat.

Usage and dosage 2 to 6, decocted in water or roasted and powdered.

Note that weak and pregnant women should not take.

Remarks (1) The northeast region produces a cricket for Seapsipedu aspersus Walker, and there are other coffin crickets Loxoblemmus doenitzi Stein, etc. in different areas for medicinal use.

The discussions of various schools

1. "Examination of medicinal properties": it can send out pimples.

2. Ren Cheng Diaries: cure water parasites.

3. "Gleanings from the Compendium": the nature of Tongli, cure urinary cut.

4. "Sichuan Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine": treatment of impotence.

5. ZHAO Jichang: Whenever a baby is not born, use one dry look and take it with decoction.

Selected prescriptions

① Treatment of small water, pain and swelling: a cricket. Yin Yang tile roasted dry, for the end. White rolled under the soup, the children reduce by half. ("Medical prescription set listening")

② treatment of falls and pummeling injury to the belly, urinary closure: a cricket. Decoction. ("Yanshuyuan Chuanxin Fang")

③ treatment of the elderly urinary closure: four crickets, four mole crickets, raw licorice one money. Decoction of soup, divided into three warm. (Modern Practical Chinese Medicine)

④ Treatment of pediatric enuresis: one cricket. Roasted, minced, under boiling water, according to the age (number) to serve, such as children eleven years old, each time to serve one, served until eleven. (Cihang living book)

⑤ Treatment of kidney impotence: crickets, sunflies, dog kidney. *** for the end, to wine service. ("Sichuan Chinese Medicine Zhi")

Edit Other Related

Beijingers play cricket

Zong Chunqi

The White Dew, Autumnal Equinox, and Cold Dew are the culmination of the Beijinger's cricket fights. "Bravely fighting the three autumns" refers to these three seasons.

Crickets, scientifically known as crickets, some articles call it a cricket, the more common name is to promote the weaving. Because once you hear the crickets chirping in the fall, the weather is getting cooler, reminding people to prepare winter clothes. Therefore, there is "urge to weave song, lazy women scared" said.

I do not know who first discovered, male crickets good fight, fight quite fun, so they caught them back, so that their fight, to see its victory or defeat, to Bo a music. According to the record, the cricket fight play, began in the Tang Dynasty, Tianbao years. Jia Sidao, a powerful prime minister of the Southern Song Dynasty, "when I was young, I had no line", after taking power, especially like the game of weaving, wrote a monograph: "weaving scripture". Emperor Xuande of the Ming dynasty also love to fight cricket, resulting in a good cricket price of tens of gold. On a good, the next will be very much. Beijing people play cricket, probably also began in the Ming Dynasty.

Not all Beijingers play cricket, play cricket, just Beijing people in the "player".

Players, the layman reads as "players". It sounds as if "play" is the verb and "home" is the object. Well, the "home" to play, this is not a loser it! The correct pronunciation is "玩家儿". The correct pronunciation is "玩家儿". "玩" without the "儿" sound.

The player is a certain status. Caught one or two crickets shelved in the jar to raise, can not be called a player. The fight is between male crickets. Crickets will use their antennae to recognize each other when they meet, and the two males will inevitably reveal their two large teeth when they meet, so that they can fight it out. A male and a female encounter is a different story. Two crickets will be tender and affectionate, mutual admiration. In ancient times, recreational cricket fights were usually held in ceramic or magnetic cricket jars. When the two males meet, a fierce battle begins. The first fierce wings chirping, one is to give themselves a cheer, the second is to kill the opponent's prestige, and then bared teeth to start the duel. Heads, kicks, rolling long tentacles, constantly rotating body, looking for a favorable position, bravely pounce. After a few rounds, the weaker one hangs his head in shame and loses the battle, while the winner tilts his head back and holds his chest high, inviting his master to reward him. The most good fighter is the cricket family lacewing, folk people called the black-headed general. A good cricket that can sing and fight well will not only be the honor of the cricket fighter, but will also become the king of the cricket kingdom.

Take the crickets

Crickets are wild. To play with a cricket, you have to catch it first - not "catch", but "take".

In the past, to get crickets, you had to go to the outskirts of Beijing. According to Mr. Jin Shou Shen in the "life in old Beijing", Beijing in the past, people engaged in catching crickets, selling crickets. Before the fall, they would take dry food to the western and northern mountains of Beijing to get crickets, and then they would go away for ten days or so, and then they would come back and sell them at the temple fairs. Playing crickets to the Lord of the temple fair to get on the line, of course, not for nothing, you have to pay. Famous and prestigious players, someone will send the crickets to the government at that time. The real players to take the crickets, a take is a basket. One basket contains ten handfuls, one handful of fourteen cans, each can contains one. These 140 crickets are enough to play for one fall. Of course, not all of the 140 crickets were raised, but they had to be selected. Selection criteria are: "head round, teeth, legs must be long, neck thick, hairy, potential to be strong." The ones that meet these criteria are left behind, and the rest are disposed of.

Players also go to the suburbs to get their own crickets. There are a few places in the suburbs of Beijing that produce crickets. Said what place out of the crickets, probably from two: one is that place crickets more, good to take; one is that place crickets good fight. First to the West Mountain Badaqi, and then to the Yongding River west of the Yungang. I heard when I was a child: Yungang basin bottom pit of crickets good fight, known as the iron mouth steel teeth. Changping Thirteen Tomb area of the mountains is also out of the cricket place. Later on, there are no crickets near Beijing can take, you have to go to the field to buy. Nowadays, the origin of the crickets, the preoccupation is Hebei Yixian, known as "small Yizhou". The best of all is the crickets from Ningyang in the Yanzhou region.

Cultivating crickets

Cultivating crickets is all about cricket jars. Cricket jars have porcelain, ceramic, the best is to use the clarified mud firing: about 15 centimeters high, about 13 centimeters in diameter, nearly 2 centimeters thick. Requirements for the mouth is large, deep, thick wall, the top has a cover. Nowadays, if anyone has more than a hundred years in the hands of mud mud crickets jar, it is a valuable treasure. The advantages of this jar is not in its appearance, but the heat preservation and moisturizing performance, suitable for crickets to survive in it. The new jar is not to be used, you have to make a base: with yellow soil, black soil, white ash mixed in a certain proportion, and then pad in the cricket jar. Why add white ash, because without white ash can not stick. White ash is not alkaline, after playing the bottom of the soil, and so dry, but also in the water to soak, the alkaline thoroughly soaked out before use. The bottom of the good can not fall, but also can not be broken.

Light cans are not enough, there must be two things: the sink and the cage.

First of all, the sink child: porcelain, semi-circular, about 3 cm in diameter, 0.7 cm high, 0.3 cm deep in the groove. This thing is done exquisitely, small, hanging glaze, depicting flowers, patterns of goldfish, water plants, crickets and so on, but also wrote the word: the courage to fight the three autumns. I do not see a wide range, think this should be the smallest size, build the most delicate porcelain. Its use need not be described in detail: feed the crickets water to drink. I heard that such a sink, nowadays worth hundreds of dollars!

Plus the cage: clarified mud burned, fine texture, light gray color, less than 3 cm high, fan-shaped, covered, covered with a handle, can be opened. There are holes at both ends of the cage for the crickets to pass through. The space inside can hold two crickets. What is the use of this cage? First, the crickets like to stay in the dark, over the cage is the cricket's nest; Second, the crickets can not just keep male (two-tailed children), but also female (three-tailed children) as a companion. If the male crickets and female crickets do not mate - the jargon is called "over the bell", it is not and the same sex fight. Over the cage, is for the crickets over the bell cave.

Raising crickets must provide the crickets with a similar survival conditions as in the wild. This is a lot to learn, it is difficult to describe here. In the past, the rich players, in the fall to hire a special handle for him to raise crickets. The first thing you need to do is to get your hands dirty.

Fighting crickets

Raise crickets for the fight. There are a lot of things to be said about fighting crickets. First, the season to fight the crickets, can not be early, early crickets are not mature. You have to wait until the fall equinox, when the weather cools down.

The crickets also pay attention to the weight class. Before fighting crickets, the crickets should be placed in a special "scoop", with a special "scale (read flat sound) children" weighing out the weight of the crickets. Now there may be a special electronic scale. I saw the "scale", than the old Chinese medicine auxiliary weighing Chinese medicine arbitrage is also small, "scale pole" is ivory, thinner than chopsticks, fixed in a foot or so square mahogany frame. It can weigh the crickets precisely to one ten thousandth of one or two (two, money, minutes, centimeters, millimeters). The average cricket weighs around six centimeters, and eight centimeters is a large cricket. The purpose of weighing is to level the playing field and not fight if the weight differs by a hair. This is because the cricket's owner does not want his well-cared-for "favorite" to have a losing record. A good cricket as long as the defeat once, it will lose the will to fight, for its owner is no longer valuable. Therefore, if you let it and heavy than their own opponents, is to win, but also to their own damage, if the loss is more "wrong".

The real players fight cricket is very formal. Prior to the preparation of the "battlefield", to the invitation. Players with their own crickets to the appointment, did not bring one or two, usually with one or two people to help look after their own crickets. The official game has a special "fighting bowl" as the battlefield, a person as a judge, and a person responsible for approving the weight of the participating crickets. After the start of the game, the arena is silent, how many eyes are staring at the cricket in the race basin, the cricket's owner's heart do not need to mention how tense, the hands can be clenched out of sweat! Because the fight between the crickets is also very intense, very ornamental. Crickets and people, some brave, some cunning, you and me, there are in and out, sometimes the two insects entangled in biting together, as if two warriors in the wrestling ring! The crickets brought to the owner of the winning battle is bound to be happy; defeated, the owner of the natural frustration. But the players are some status, status people, each other polite and courteous. Players fight crickets, the figure is fun, not for profit. Sometimes also "hang some color", but only a box or two of cigarettes. Of course, this way of gambling is not unheard of. But it should also be "play things not to lose heart" for the degree.

Ancient recreational cricket, usually in the ceramic or magnetic cricket canisters. The two males met, a fierce battle began. First violently vibrating wings chirping, one is to give themselves a cheer, the second is to destroy the opponent's prestige, and then bared his teeth to start the duel. Heads, kicks, rolling long tentacles, constantly rotating body, looking for a favorable position, bravely pounce. After a few rounds, the weaker one hangs his head in shame and loses the battle, while the winner tilts his head back and holds his chest high, inviting his master to reward him. The most good fighter is the cricket family lacewing, folk people called the black-headed general. A good cricket that can both chirp and fight well will not only be the glory of the cricket fighters, but will also become the king of the cricket kingdom.