cladking Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 I'm sure they can thrive in an enviroment of rotting wood but can they actually eat the wood? If you have an enviroment of dry and rotting pine, cyprus, acacia, and dry grasses (hafagrass) made into rope is it natural to have crickets? No other insect life is actually reported. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Only a handful of insects are able to digest wood (with the help of symbionts), but crickets are not one of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Only a handful of insects are able to digest wood (with the help of symbionts), but crickets are not one of them. Thank you. Very appreciated. Is it plausible that they might survive on microbes and very small organisms eating wood? I really should have noticed this inconsisteny immediately but somehow did not. The western boat pit at the base of the Great Pyramid had nothing in it but a disassembled boat so far as I know. When a camera and lights were lowered through an airtight opening recently a cricket came up to investigate it. This is a tightly sealed hole with almost no water and a boat that has apparently sat here mostly undisturbed for about 4700 years. The boat does exhibit some decomposition. The CO2 level in the pit is double normal with about half of it being ancient carbon (released from the stone?). There are some modern contaminants sugesting an incomplete seal. It is widely believed that the water was introduced by condensation from an ice cream truck that was parked over this location in the early '50's. This area is quite large and approximately 60' by 12' by 15' deep. For some reason the incongruity of a cricket in here escaped my notice initially. Any further thoughts would be very appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Some crickets are omnivores so theoretically it could be the case. But it would not be microbes, but rather other insects. That being said, I think fungi would be more likely as a (speculative) food source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cladking Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 Some crickets are omnivores so theoretically it could be the case. But it would not be microbes, but rather other insects. That being said, I think fungi would be more likely as a (speculative) food source. Thanks again. I'm very sorry but I was confused and it was actually a beetle rather than a cricket. Wiki suggests some beetles actually cultivate fungus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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