Male vs Female Crickets
With more than 900 species currently occurring on the Earth, crickets pose a significant interest about them. They are much similar to the appearance of the grasshoppers with laterally fattened bodies. Crickets are harmless creatures to humans but not for their prey species, as they are omnivorous animals. The chirp of crickets is a very commonly known characteristic about them. Despite the fact that they do not pose any danger for humans, crickets show swarming behaviours that may include crop raiding when they fly across agricultural lands. Identifying the sex of these interesting creatures would be very difficult unless a proper studying has been carried out about them, because both male and female would look exactly same at the first glance. However, there are some tangible differences between male and female crickets including the size, shape, wings, behaviours, and sound.
Body Size and Shape
Females are more likely to be larger than males, especially when the females carry eggs in their abdomen. The size difference could be observed in the abdomen usually, and that determines a characteristic shape for the egg-carrying females among males. It would be important to notice the presence of the ovipositor in the female abdomen, but it is not present in males at all. There are two protruded tubes in the abdomen of both males and females, but the ovipositor in female appears as the third protrusion bisecting the other two. Therefore, these tubes offer a highly reliable indication whether a cricket is a male or a female.
Wings
Females have well developed wings compared to males. Almost the entire body of the female is covered with her long wings. On the other hand, males have slightly shorter wings than the females do. The end of the wings of females forms an angle, which is much comparable with the rounded edge in male wings. In addition, the venation is prominent in female wings, but no veins are present on the male wings.
Behaviours
Observing the behaviours of crickets offers some important characteristics about both males and females. Females usually spend their time in digging the dirt to find a location to lay their eggs. They root the dirt with their abdominal tubes usually, and the ovipositor is stuck out into the dig, to lay eggs. On the other hand, males do not play with dirt usually.
Chirping
Exclusively the males make the famous cricket chirps, and those are mainly to attract the females for mating. Males have especially roughened wings, so that they can rub those together to make these. It is believed that cricket chirps are capable of driving the other males away while attracting the females.
Summary:
Difference between Male and Female Crickets
• Females are slightly larger than males, especially in their abdomens.
• Females carry eggs but not males.
• Females have three protruding tubes from the abdomen, while there are only two tubes protruded out from the male abdomen. In other words, females have ovipositors but not males.
• Wings in the females are long and cover the body more than the male wings do.
• Edge of the male wings is round, but it forms an angle in females.
• Males produce chirps but not females.
• Female wings have veins but not in male wings.
• Females make digs in the dirt to lay eggs, but not the males.