In Persian we call them Abdozdak (Literally: Thief of Water) since their tunnels cause the water in plantations like rice farms to drain out.

You say "Mole Cricket", I say "Lobster Cockroach"

This series might as be called, “Arthropods named after two different other animals.”

Females- have the power of flight Males- can “sing” Yeah this seems unfair

As an entomologist and advocate of biodiversity conservation I must say that I appreciate your videos.

I caught a female while I was living in Abu Dhabi. I was very surprised to find them living there. I had never seen one before in person before that, so I admired it for a few hours before releasing it. Very cool insect!

I remember finding mole crickets under patches of "dead grass" in our lawns when growing up. Interesting critters, though I remember my father had no love for them.

Imagine one of those eggs in a jellybean guessing game

Who else remembers catching these on Animal Crossing?

Mole crickets are very interesting looking insects!

Next time on "Animal of the Week" *The Mountain Chicken* Which neither a mountain, nor a chicken.

My grandparents were farmers. As children we had lots of them living where they kept the "bullshit" (literally) for fertilising the fields. I liked catching them as a child. We used them for fishing. ;-) Sad thing, I didn't see one alive again for decades!!!

Mole Crickets are everywhere in my area, They are cool animals.

I caught one of these as a kid cause I thought it was a Pokémon. I gave it a lil cage with some soil, grass, and some worms. A bird went and destroyed the cage and ate it :( I was sad.

They're really tasty too. I always enjoy eating them fried with Holy Basil.

And till this day, I never suspected that these bloody hellspawns are called "mole crickets" in english. In russian they are called "medvedka", which can be roughly translated as "a bear-wannabe insect".

Mole crickets are actually quite capable swimmers too, which is very unusual for a terrestrial insect.

Oh my big brother loves to catch mole crickets(I know sounds weird)! They are actually amazing, they look like some kind of movie monsters. I live in Armenia and my grandmother always calls them իշաճռճռ. իշա comes from էշ, which means donkey and ճռճռ is a word that describes an animal sound, because they make cricket sounds.

I am from Brazil, and this little guy's live here too! They are amazingly cute and fast runners

As a child, I use to catch a lot of these when digging in the mud. My momma told me they are called "Blind Crickets"

This guy would make a good Mecha concept. Mech Engineer: “Mole - Cricket- 001. DEPLOY !!!!!!” * Anime Intro *

From South Africa. We had load of them groing up. Loved tracking them down by their distinctive calls in my garden (thank you field guides). They are pretty cool animals to find in a garden. With so many boring crickets found, these are a treasure. They are really cool looking common animals we all can enjoy

They were quite common where I grew up in Australia. As kids we would gently hold them in our hands and laugh as they tickled us as they tried to pry our fingers apart. They were surprisingly strong.

I absolutely love catching mole crickets!

In the Philippines we call them "ararawan" which is a delicacy for farmers. During planting season the fields are flooded with water in preparation for planting rice. When these insects try to escape from their burrowing holes farmers catch them. I remember my father brining them home where they are either sauteed, roasted, or stewed. They are really yummy with a crunchy and a rather creamy flavor.

I've only ever seen mole crickets in Mother 3

These things are extremely resilient! I was around someone that caught one and for whatever reason put the poor thing in a partially empty jug of kerosene. I got it out and kept it in captivity with vegetation and soil for what seemed like a few weeks, then I released it at a local park and it immediately started digging into the ground. Really neat little insects!

My friend knew a guy who had one of these things jump in his ear lol

I’ve played Animal Crossing for over a decade and never saw one of these in person til this year. I was home for the weekend (it had been months since I had been back to visit), and my dad & I were walking our family dogs. This guy crawled across sidewalk in front of us out of nowhere. The excitement of my 12 yr old self surfaced and I explained what it was.....and was reminded where I get my natural curiosity. My pops was thrown away by the weird critter and just as interested as I was, he had never seen one before either. Thank you for that moment you bizarre mole lobster semi-cricket

I LOVE 'IM!!~ We call 'em "Pacas" here! they signify Hope and/or Prosperity to be found in your home! (around here at least)

I Puerto Rico we call them Changas. There's a community that is located close to me that is actually called La Changa (The Mole Cricket).

I’ve been in a swarm of mole crickets. I was playing tennis one night under the lights (in FL), & thousands upon thousands of mole crickets were congregating on the courts, flying & crawling & mating. They made it impossible to keep playing

In Latvia we call them ''zemes vēži'' which translates to "ground lobsters"

we use to play this insect when we were young. we usualy put in in our hand and close it tight and we amaze how it manage to break free

This is one of my favorite animals-thank you for covering it. Unfortunately, I have never found one in my home of Maryland. That said, I have found my other favorite animal, which I hope you will also cover, it’s the red velvet ant, or cow killer.

Here in the Philippines, we eat them. They're mostly in rice fields which makes them easy to catch during harvest season.

In Indonesia we called it "Ga'ang" means ground-dog, it tends to showed up in school due to our school very close with rice fields... My friend: Kill it, it stinks...! Me [with gas mask on]: *Come General, this no place to die...!*

Used to dig them up in my dads garden all the time. Always nice to see a familiar animal each week :)

They also have one hell of a bite, almost feels like gettin pinched by a crab or crawdad except they can draw blood depending on where they bite.

I'm probably the only person who thought this but: *Did anyone see this video and think of the mole cricket from Mother 3*

Excellent video and channel. Very informative, I love learning about different species extant and extinct. It’s also interesting to read the comments on videos like this one and read about what other people from different cultures call these creatures and how we interact with them.

I didn't see these creatures for decades! thanks for sharing

You guys should do a week on the giant water bugs aka "toe biters" or the "water scorpion" from family nepidae. Their pretty interesting and surprisingly common and diverse freshwater set of insects.

"Mole cricket" sounds cute and adorable to me for some reason.👹😅

Literally reminds me of the "Tanker" from Starship Troopers just, little and with wings...

For anyone who hasn't experienced it. If you find one and feel them try to burrow through your fingers. I juust put it gently in your hand it'll try to dig its way out. Totally harmless but Totally cool. Theyre so strong!

i had a few of them on my balcony - courtesy of my cats. believe you me, in turkey, they get gigantic, almost as long as a male hand, they are heavy too! i was surprised and shocked, when my cats brought 3 of them in a single night!

I love these little guys, I live next to bushland in Australia so they often crawl into the house, gotta say they're a lot better to come across than centipedes

I had a mole cricket scurry out from under the couch I was sitting on a few years back! (I live in Sydney, Australia) Scared the living hell out of me as I had never seen one, and it was big and weird looking. What it was doing under there I have no idea, but the room is right beside a big grassy area outside so I guess it came from there. When I looked up what is was, I was obviously delighted, and put it back outside on the grass after naming it Kevin.

One of my favourite arthropods, some good memories of mine are related to it

i did a presentation on these guys in zoology during my 3rd year of college! very cool little animals

ahhh, the Mole Cricket, seen it when I was a child, found it quite unusual and interesting, thank you for the video

I’ve been fascinated about these creatures for the last 2 weeks and when I saw your video in my recommend I was taken aback 😂❤️

wanted to congratulate you on your always superb content and on how you never underestimate your viewers

Florida has a bunch of these really thought they were crickets very cool when its something that I actually see all the time I learn something new every time I watch one of your videos thanks guys

They make good fishing bait too. Quite rare and expensive in shops in Romania. They hang out near rotting manure piles, probably hunting smaller bugs or worms.

We have these where I live lol, they're really weird - Periodically we find one in the house, usually trapped in a glass or something and I can only describe the sound they make indoors as assorted cursing in frustration.

Insert Mother 3 reference.

Never expected you to do a video on these. I fucking love these guys! I know they're a pest for the fields, but i've always been fascinated by them, and whenever I was lucky enough to catch one, I'd keep it and watch it for a bit before releasing it. I'm always amazed at how strong they are. Fascinating little critters.

Found these under lawns in Australia mid 1960's. Never seen them anywhere else, especially where I am these days in Sweden! 😀

Last month I moved out of town and settled near my university and I saw this video in the recommendation few days back, today I found a beatle kind of insect running around the room when I grabed it with a paper to throw it outside I noticed the mole like appendages and immediately came here.. Thank you🐾

when I was a kid they used to be frequent in the gardens. haven't seen any since 40 years. made great bait for big prussian and crucian carps btw. :)

These thing taste really good!! In my country we deep fry these with oil and mix with spice, salt, sugar.

İnsects *could* have occupied *all* the niches of earth, if only the oxygen remained higher

Here in Texas past couple summers been strange roaches with Cricket legs there built almost like crickets but with the roach appearance..

aww its adorable

Rice farmers or people living in rural areas eat that and even sell them. A common way of preparing them is sauteing them with onion, garlic and soy sauce.

I just joined your discord server and I am enjoying it!

It can fly, It can dig, It can swim. The true jack of the trades.

I actually found one of these walking around near a lake around 2-3 years ago, was a smol boi but its arms were bloody henched

I remember seeing these when I was a boy especially in our swimming pool drowned. I'm 56 years old never knew I know now I've learned something new thank you

That bug looks badass!

I arrived back home from suriname a couple of days ago, while I was out there I saw some mole crickets. But these ones live in the sand right next to the water line, you can see the burrows in the sand where they have been feeding. Tried getting pictures but they are fast, like really fast. While I was out there I also saw ant lion traps, they are proper nightmare fuel. As your doing the whole "duel name" thing, they might be a interesting one to make a video about.

Man the Mole Cricket from MOTHER 3 got so popular they decided to make it into a real thing

I have seen a handful of these insects in my life but I always thought that they were baby dragonflies that did not have their wings least that's what someone told me when I was younger but in recent years I've been having a hard time believing it. It's nice to finally learn what this animal is called and I should know something about it so yes I did learn something and I'm quite happy now. Thank you very much for making this video and helping to further education well done and I look forward to more

Adorable little things, when you handle them, they try to burrow inbetween your fingers :D

Here in Brazil they are common. Birds love them.

In Korea we call them 땅강아지(ground puppy). I used to see a lot of them when I was young. Super cute creatures!

My first encounter with Mole Crickets was a few years ago at my local museum. A man brought a couple in to get identified cause he had a house fire and dozens of them made their way into the house afterwards and were being aggressive. The fire probably made it very warm in their nests next to the house

In Australia these are one of two things we call Toe Biters, the other being Giant Water Bugs. I will leave it up to the imagination of the reader to guess as to why.

When I was doing conservation work in the Caribbean we found loads of these, if you cover them up in your hands they will burrow down into your skin

Ah finally an animal I knew before.

they can fly, swim and dig very quickly. strong enough to push through your closed fingers, they leave a "bugs bunny" ground trail. I see them a lot in southeast Texas

I saw this only once, in 2003 when I was in Iraq. I tried to video it as I had never seen one before and always wondered what it was. Thank you! It only took 17 years for my question to be answered. ha!

A mole cricket is burrowing into the nest, you must mount a swift defense or your brood will be forfeit.

I live in Louisiana and I remember seeing these things all the time at the gas station. I swear I have seen them maybe twice in 20 years since. But when I was a kid alot of the area was just fields. That's all changed now 😞

I got mole crickets in my yard and I never thought how weird they are

I always thought these lil' guys were just so cute 💜

Enjoyed your video and gave it a Thumbs Up

All the different names are too good.

These are abundant in suburban Perth, Western Australia, unfortunately mainly invasive species from the east coast. You find them everywhere at night during summer.

I tried a bag of mixed roasted insects which included some mole crickets and they the better tasting out of the bunch

I'm in Michigan, just came across one of these very strange looking bugs.. first time I've ever seen one.

Beautiful insect

In Malaysia in my hometown you can still find mole cricket..nice video, keep it up! what next? XD

As the kids would say, "this is some Gamer-fuel"

"Animals that are named after two different animals and are strange mixes of the two ..." I wonder, what wouldn't be a strange combination? The fish fish? The shrew shrew?

Found one of these in my garage after heavy rain, far more scary then finding a funnel Web spider in the garage. At least funnel webs are far less violent and easier to catch

What a cool creature.

When excavating canals at the lake of my childhood, we'd find these all over, called them doggy diggers and made them castle kings.