© 2025 University of Missouri - KBIA
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Discover Nature (Missouri Department of Conservation)

Discover Nature: Field Crickets Call

KBIA | By Kyle Felling
Published October 7, 2020 at 6:24 PM CDT
A brown-black female cricket rests on brown soil.
On autumn evenings, listen for a chorus of crickets. Female crickets deposit eggs under soil to overwinter and hatch in the spring. Male crickets don’t get their wings until their final molt at reproductive maturity.";

Discover Nature this week, and listen for the sounds of autumn, as a sonorous chorus of crickets carries across the night air. 

 

Frogs such as spring peepers may get the glory of signaling warmer seasons, but field crickets are the celebrated singers filling the soundscape of fall.  

 

Field crickets may have black, brown, or tan bodies, about an inch long, and adult females have a needlelike, though harmless, ovipositor extending from the abdomen. 

 

Adult females deposit eggs under soil to overwinter and hatch in the spring. Field crickets molt several times as they grow, and only get their wings in their final molt, as they reach reproductive maturity. 

 

In this final stage of life, males rub rough portions of their wings together at an angle, forming a resonating chamber similar to the body of a violin. These calls attract females to mate and warn-off rival males. 

 

In the fleeting warmth of a fall evening, under the stars or around a campfire, pause to appreciate the song that field crickets have been working all summer to sing. 

 

Learn more about field crickets and their ecological impacts at MissouriConservation.org.

 

Discover Nature is sponsored by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Tags
Arts and Culture Discover Nature
Kyle Felling
Kyle Felling’s work at KBIA spans more than three decades. In 2025, he became KBIA and KMUC's Station Manager. He began volunteering at the station while he was a Political Science student at the University of Missouri. After being hired as a full-time announcer, he served as the long-time local host of NPR’s All Things Considered on KBIA, and was Music Director for a number of years. Starting in 2010, Kyle became KBIA’s Program Director, overseeing on-air programming and operations while training and supervising the station’s on-air staff. During that period, KBIA regularly ranked among the top stations in the Columbia market, and among the most listened to stations in the country. He was instrumental in the launch of KBIA’s sister station, Classical 90.5 FM in 2015, and helped to build it into a strong community resource for classical music. Kyle has also worked as an instructor in the MU School of Journalism, training the next generation of journalists and strategic communicators. In his spare time, he enjoys playing competitive pinball, reading comic books and Joan Didion, watching the Kansas City Chiefs, and listening to Bruce Springsteen and the legendary E Street Band.
See stories by Kyle Felling
Related Content