• 15 parts
  • Checked September 2026

Parts of a Cricket

A male cricket, a female, and the wing that makes the chirp.

Parts of a Cricket

Name Date

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
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Write the name of each numbered part.Answer key

  1. Head
  2. Antennae
  3. Compound eyes
  4. Pronotum
  5. Forewings
  6. Hind wings
  7. Hind legs
  8. Ear (tympanum)
  9. Abdomen
  10. Cerci
  11. Ovipositor
  12. File
  13. Scraper
  14. Harp
  15. Mirror

Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry. Licence: own work.

Each numbered ring is a button. Use the arrow keys to move between them and Enter to choose. Names are read out in Study, and once a part is answered.

Next step Next: the parts of a spider

All 15 parts on the diagram

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A male from above 8

  1. Head A cricket's head is round. It carries the eyes, the antennae and the mouth.
  2. Antennae Long, thin sense organs, as long as the body or longer.
  3. Compound eyes Two large eyes, one on each side of the head.
  4. Pronotum A smooth, strong plate behind the head. It covers the first part of the thorax, the middle section of the body.
  5. Forewings The front wings are tough and leathery and cover the hind wings. A male's forewings also make his chirp.
  6. Hind wings Thin wings folded like a fan under the forewings. Many crickets cannot fly.
  7. Hind legs The back legs are much bigger than the others. The thick top part gives the power to jump, and the thin part below it has spines.
  8. Ear (tympanum) A cricket hears with its front legs. Each one has a thin drum, the tympanum, on its lower part.

A female 3

  1. Abdomen The last of the three body sections. In the first drawing the wings hide most of it.
  2. Cerci A pair of long feelers at the tip of the abdomen. Males and females both have them, and each works like an antenna.
  3. Ovipositor A long, thin tube at the tip of the female's abdomen. She pushes it into the soil to lay her eggs.

The singing wing 4

  1. File A toothed vein on the underside of the wing, like a comb.
  2. Scraper A hard part of the wing's edge, also called the plectrum. To chirp, the male rubs the scraper of one wing along the file of the other.
  3. Harp A large three-sided patch of stiff wing. It shakes when the scraper hits the file and makes the chirp loud.
  4. Mirror A smaller, clear patch of wing beyond the harp. Like the harp, it shakes and adds to the sound.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 in at least two of these: Wikipedia, Cricket (insect), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_(insect); University of Kentucky Entomology, Crickets of Kentucky, https://www.uky.edu/Ag/CritterFiles/casefile/insects/crickets/crickets.htm; Missouri Department of Conservation, Texas A&M AgriLife and University of Minnesota Extension cricket pages; Wang and others (2022), ZooKeys 1129; Laskri and others (2024), Royal Society Open Science; Gallagher and others (2022), Evolution Letters; Comstock, A Manual for the Study of Insects (1895); OpenStax Biology 2e 28.6. The sources list says which source gave what. Detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

These are the parts of a cricket, the insect: a male from above, a female from above, and one forewing of the male up close. Read each name, then name the parts yourself.

Read the full guide

Male, female, then his wing

Numbers 1 to 8 are on a male from above: head, antennae, eyes, pronotum, the two pairs of wings, the jumping legs and the ear on a front leg. Numbers 9 to 11 are on a female: her abdomen, the two cerci and the long ovipositor. Numbers 12 to 15 are on one forewing of the male, up close: the file, the scraper, the harp and the mirror, the parts that make the chirp.

  • The male has a file, a harp and a mirror, so the male chirps.
  • A long, straight ovipositor between the two cerci means a female.

Questions and answers

How do crickets chirp?

Males chirp. A male lifts his forewings and rubs them together, so the scraper on one wing runs along the toothed file under the other. The harp and the mirror shake and make the sound loud.

How can you tell a male cricket from a female?

Look at the back end. A female has a long, straight ovipositor between her two cerci, which she uses to lay eggs in the soil. A male has only the two cerci, and his forewings carry the file, harp and mirror.

Where are a cricket's ears?

On its front legs. Each front leg has a thin drum called a tympanum, which picks up sound.

How many legs does a cricket have?

Six, like every insect. The two hind legs are much bigger than the others and are built for jumping.

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