Say hello to the potato bug. These giant flightless insects are also known as Jerusalem crickets, which is interesting because they are neither potatoes, bugs, nor crickets.
Jerusalem crickets span two genera, meanwhile the name “potato bug” can refer to a Jerusalem cricket, a roly-poly, or a Colorado potato beetle. So it seems these massive arthropods are baffling in all sorts of ways. Let’s break it down.
What is a Jerusalem cricket?
The Jerusalem cricket isn’t a true cricket, and though it’s nicknamed the potato bug, it isn’t a true bug either. Potato bug is the nickname given to two genera of Jerusalem crickets, Ammopelmatus and Stenopelmatus.
The Jerusalem cricket bite is not venomous, and is mostly harmless – but it can hurt a fair bit. The Jerusalem cricket bite is so impressive that recommends you don’t keep them in a mesh bag because they’ll chew right through it.
A lack of venom isn’t to say potato bugs don’t pack a punch, however, as their bites can draw a little blood, which is quite impressive for any insect. Then there’s the fact that their nymphs are violent cannibals…
Did you say cannibals?
According to a , Jerusalem crickets of the Stenopelmatus genus have an appetite for their own kind when they’re nymphs. As , they begin as eggs, and then develop into nymphs, before becoming adults. By their account, the Battle Royale between the mid-stage is quite something. “S. talpa nymphs are cannibalistic, and the cannibalism was violent,” they wrote.
And the cannibal action doesn’t end there. A learned the hard way that Jerusalem crickets aren’t opposed to eating each other when one of their male subjects ate a smaller female. Females also get in on the cannibalistic action, occasionally eating males shortly after copulation.
What is a potato bug?
Roly-poly, ladybug, bee – what do all these names have in common? They identify a group of animals, but not a single specific species. The same is true of nicknames like daddy long legs (which , by the way), and the potato bug, which can be one of three distantly related critters.
We’ve already covered the Jerusalem cricket, then you have the Colorado potato beetle, which started in , becoming a very tricky and expensive pest affecting potato crops worldwide. Then there’s Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill bug, which is also sometimes called the potato bug.
Then again, given how many names there are for woodlice, you might as well call it Ian.