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Field Cricket | Daily Animal Facts

Animal profile

Field Cricket

Gryllus campestris

InsectaShort dry grassland and heath with bare ground for burrowing, in warm sunny sites

Field profile

The field cricket is a stout, glossy black cricket that digs a short burrow and sings from its entrance. Males chirp by day and evening to attract females and repel rivals. It has declined sharply in parts of northern Europe as grassland has been lost.

Scope note

This is an editorial profile, not a diagnostic field-identification guide or a substitute for current conservation assessments. Follow the cited sources on each fact for the evidence trail.

Published field notes

2025-10-14

Field Cricket

A cricket's chirp rate reports the air temperature

Because a cricket's muscles run at ambient temperature, its song speeds up in warm air and slows in cool. Counting chirps over a fixed interval gives a usable estimate of temperature, a relationship first quantified in the 1890s.

Read with evidence →