Whistling Cricket

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 3

Whistling Cricket

Sir,—Tonight as I was passing the New Brighton Post Office I was stopped in my tracks by a high-pitched continued whistle. I was surprised not only because I am a uiale, but because I had not before beard the whistle south of Nelson. After circling a lamp-post several times, the last circuit or two on my knees, I located the cheeky offender in a crack in the pavement where the light glistened on a shiny skull with two inquisitive, waving antennae. When I last met this fellow with others of his family on the Cathedral steps one night in Nelson I was introduced to him simply as the “whistling cricket’* He does not appear to be mentioned in Powell's “Native Animals of New Zealand,” my only authority, although his North Island cousins dominate the night air in most leafy towns. Could someone tell me more about him?—Yours, etc, P.D.D. March 25, 1963.

[The assistant director of the Canterbury Museum (Mr E. G. Turbott) said: “The introduced Australian black cricket is a common insect in the northern part of the South Island as well as in the North Island, but has not been recorded south of - the Kaikoura district. However, as the insect described has a green head, it seems more likely to have been a different species, the green grasshopper or katydid. This is wholly green in colour, has wings held ait an angle over the body and has long slender antennae. If a specimen could be obtained the insect could be identified with certainty."]