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Story: Insect pests of crops, pasture and forestry

Black field cricket

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Black field cricket

Black field crickets are a problem only in Northland, Auckland, parts of Taranaki, and Hawke’s Bay. Eggs are laid in moist soil from February to May, and nymphs (immature adults) emerge from November to January. Adults appear from February and live for two or three months. They inhabit cracks in the soil and eat surrounding crowns of grasses, which usually die.

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Natural Sciences Image Library of New Zealand

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by G. R. Roberts

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How to cite this page

Alison Popay, Insect pests of crops, pasture and forestry – Introduced pests of pasture foliage, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/17963/black-field-cricket (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Alison Popay, published 1 March 2009.