Mormon Cricket Colorado. It has been called a mormon cricket ever since. Dinosaur national monument colorado august 5 2011 3 53 pm i caught this specimen in 2005.
It lives throughout western north america in rangelands dominated by sagebrush and forbs despite its name the mormon cricket is actually a shieldbacked katydid not a cricket it takes its name from mormon settlers in utah who encountered them while pushing westward and for the prominent. Howard stansbury exploration and survey of the valley of the great salt lake of utah including a reconnoissance of a new route through the rocky mountains philadelphia. Reports fr01n some of the earliest cattle.
The first record of this insect as an agricultural pest was in 1847 during the early settlement of utah by the mormons.
Mormon cricket control by c. Entomologists classified these insects not as crickets but technically as katydids and recorded the species as anabrus simplex what came to be called the mormon cricket for this 1848 episode. Capinera university of florida used by permission. The mormon cricket anabrus simplex is a large insect that can grow to almost 8 cm 3 inches in length.
