prairie tree cricket
Oecanthus argentinus Saussure 1874

map	male	antennal markings	male and eggs

	19 s of calling song [1.64MB]; male from Los Angeles Co., Calif.; 25.8°C. (WTL581-25)
	6 s of calling song [257KB]; same as above but truncated and downsampled.

Sound spectrogram of 2 s of calling at 25.8°C (from WTL581-25). Dominant frequency 3.9 kHz.
Click on first half of spectrogram to hear graphed song.
Click on last 0.5 s to expand its spectrographic image.

Identification:  Length 13–15 mm. Black marks on second antennal segment confluent, contiguous, or separated by no more than one-third the width of the inside mark; pronotum never black or with black or dusky stripes.

Habitat:  Prairies, old fields, crops.

Season:  Two generations annually in most areas; probably one in the most northern populations and perhaps more than two in the most southern ones. In central Ohio, the first generation adults occur in July and early August, and the second generation ones occur in September and October In southern Arizona, adults have been collected from early February to mid December.

Song at 25°C:  Continuous trill at 51 p/s and 3.8 kHz.

Song data:  See Walker 1963.

Similar species:  Four-spotted and fast-calling—black marks on second antennal segment separated by more than one-third width of the inside mark.

Remarks:  This species has apparently spread eastward in the past 50 years, probably in response to the extensive prairielike habitats produced by agriculture. The five herb-inhabiting species of the Oecanthus nigricornis species group—the prairie, four-spotted, black-horned, Forbes's, and fast-calling—are the most commonly encountered and the most difficult to identify tree crickets.

More information:  genus Oecanthus, subfamily Oecanthinae.

References:  Fulton 1926a, 1926b; Walker 1963, 1967; Williams 1945.

Nomenclature: OSF (Orthoptera Species File Online).