Overhead view of black female Field Cricket (Gryllus assimilis), showing ovipositor and cerci, Colorado US.

The female Field Cricket uses her long egg-laying tube (ovipositor) - a spike-like appendage, about 0.75 inches (19 mm) long, on the hind end of the abdomen between two cerci. She places her eggs one at a time in soil, decaying wood or other suitable medium. Males make their familiar chirping sound by rubbing special structures on the wings across each other. In principle, it is like running your thumb down the teeth of a comb. If you observe a singing male, you will notice his wings fluttering over his back. Photographed at Lakewood Colorado US, June 1995.