Nutrition
The Snowy Tree Cricket
due to its weak mandibles (Fulton
1915), they main feed on both plant and animal materials
which are soft enough for them to ingest. In the tree cricket's
natural setting, they often feed on chlorophyll-bearing cells
and vascular tissues from plant tissue as well as spores of
fungi (Fulton
1915). For some, depending on what is available to eat in
the particular setting they are in, some tree crickets have been
found with mainly insect materials in their stomachs (Fulton
1915). Tree crickets that have been injured and can no
longer defend themselves often get eaten by by fellow tree
crickets (Fulton
1915).
In a captive setting, many different types
of plant and animal material have been given to tree crickets to
see what they survive the best on. They seem to do well eating
plant lice (Aphids), raspberry leaves, cambium layer (second
layer) of apple branches and floral parts of carrots (Fulton
1915). Those of who were confined to branches, ate the outer
layer of the fruit (peaches and plums) and sucked out the inner
pulp. With the fruits such as apples, with an hard exterior, the
tree crickets were not able to penetrate the hard skin making
the fruit inedible (Fulton
1915). In all, Snowy Tree Crickets' diets are limited to
soft animal and plant materials such as leaves and soft, ripe
fruits.
