When I was a kid I saw lots of potato bugs. They are really named Jerusalem crickets but here in California we know them as potato bugs. They are pretty ugly.
I haven’t seen one in years, but that doesn’t mean I think they have died out like the Tyrannosaurus Rex. I imagine there are a couple of reasons I don’t see them anymore. First, my eyes are now much further from the ground than they were when I was a little kid. Secondly, I really am not outdoors playing in the dirt as much. And finally, where I’ve lived as an adult has been in wall-to-wall tract housing, and this fact may have chased the potato bugs back into the boonies.
But still, you’d think that at least once in the last 60 years I would have seen one. But no.
Wikipedia says that when they mate, they make a drumming sound by hitting their abdomen against the ground. The whole article on potato bugs on Wikipedia is very interesting, and it includes a taped noise of this drumming. You should listen to it.
When my diverticulosis is at its worst, I feel like doing a little potato bug drumming too. Do you fellow sufferers know what I mean?
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