DECIDUOUS WINGS IN CRICKETS: 
A NEW BASIS FOR WING DIMORPHISM 
By T. J. Walker 1 
Department of Entomology and Nematology 
University of Florida, Gainesville 32601 
Dimorphism in wing length occurs in species of at least seven in- 
sect orders (Richards, 1961). It is conspicuous in many species of 
crickets. Crickets with the folded metathoracic wings extending be- 
yond the tegmina are termed macropterous, and those with the folded 
metathoracic wings covered by the tegmina are termed micropterous 
(Alexander, 1961, 1968). Since flying crickets — such as those fly- 
ing to light traps — are always macropterous, it seems safe to con- 
clude that micropterous crickets cannot fly. It seems probable, though 
the evidence is sparse, that macropterous individuals generally do fly 
and that wing dimorphism in crickets has the same behavioral cor- 
relation with emigration that it has in aphids (Kennedy and Stroyan, 
1959 ). 
In studying three species of short-tailed cricket (Anurogryllus) 2 , 
I noted dimorphism in wing length. Most specimens had no visible 
metathoracic wings (i.e. were micropterous), but 5% of those of 
the U. S. species and about 20% each of two West Indian species 
had conspicuously protruding metathoracic wings (i.e. were macrop- 
terous). At least 5 of the 16 macropterous West Indian specimens 
were collected at light, but none of the 4 macropterous specimens 
of the U. S. species were. Three of these 4 were recently molted 
specimens from a laboratory colony and the other was a teneral 
specimen dug from its burrow in the field. Obviously none had ever 
flown. In studies of the same species Weaver and Sommers (1969, 
p. 338) also noted macroptreous teneral specimens, and in addition 
described behavior that accounts for the absence of macropterous in- 
dividuals among non-teneral specimens: “When the cricket first 
transforms into the adult stage, the wrinkled, whitish hindwings 
extend for some distance beyond the posterior edge of the forewings 
Usually within 24 hr the hindwings are broken off at 
the base and eaten.” 
This study was supported by NSF Grant GB-20749. Florida Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station Journal Series No. 4576. 
The three species are presently known as A. muticus (De Geer), but 
they will be given distinctive binomials in a paper now in press (Walker 
1973). 
Manuscript received by the editor October 9, 1972 
