Ichnologic note

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Recent mole cricket burrows were examined at an abandoned pit in New Jersey. Tunnel morphology and lack of sediment removal from tunnels is similar to that of the variegated mud‐loving beetle, Heterocerus. Water content and particle size of sediment are important factors in mole cricket burrowing. The animal seems to test the degree of saturation and, perhaps, substrate texture (1 mm or less) with scrapes of its fore tibiae before proceeding to burrow. Because of restrictive subsurface compaction resulting from the tunneling method, fossil mole cricket burrows and associated traces, such as fore tibiae impressions, can provide fades‐specific information important for paleoenvironmental reconstruction.