It had been an exceptionally busy night, spent in
the company of a virgin.
He had gone in search of a mate the previous evening, working
hard to attract female attention by rubbing his wings together – or
stridulating if you want to get technical.
He rejected several plump females who responded to
his calls, for the wily Armoured Ground Cricket knew that virgin crickets were
slender little beauties.
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| Morocco |
Why a preference for a virgin? Because a first
timer will mate once and lay her eggs, whereas the old pros mate and lay their
eggs randomly. By sticking to the svelte virgins, he knew that a higher
proportion of her offspring would be his.
When a slim young thing eventually turned up,
he stridulated ardently and offered her his nuptial gift of a food sack
together with his sperm pouch. She proved receptive and he carefully attached
the spermatophore close to her genital opening. Job done.
However, having lost around 20% of his body
weight, he needed to replenish his energy levels. It was sunrise. He staggered
off in search of a meal. His appetite was eclectic, but he was partial to bird
nestlings and headed across the desert scrub towards some likely looking
shrubs.
In his weakened state, progress was slow, making him
vulnerable. At almost 3 inches long, detection by predators was difficult to
avoid.
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| Gecko, Morocco |
When the gecko attacked and grabbed him, the
cricket mobilised his defences and autohaemorrhaged, squirting pale green,
acrid smelling blood into the gecko’s face. The predator immediately dropped
him and scurried off in disgust.
The cricket climbed wearily onto a black rubber car
tyre, perhaps in a bid to camouflage itself.
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| Armoured Ground Cricket, Morocco |
When the humans began to show an interest in him,
he watched and waited. He didn’t have it in him to autohaemorrhage again, but if
that finger moved any closer he would unleash his final defence mechanism and
vomit up his last meal all over it.
I hope you enjoyed this latest offering - do leave a comment me. See you in a couple of weeks.
