Many of the animals of the Amazon have yet to be discovered! This is especially true for insects, thousands of different kinds of which are estimated to exist, as yet unknown and unstudied. The “cecropia cricket” is one such imagined insect.

Many different kinds of crickets live in the Amazon, usually on the forest floor. Most are omnivores, eating a variety of plant and animal material. But some are specialists with a narrow diet and will eat only certain foods. Cecropia crickets are such specialists and are thought to eat only the seeds of the cecropia tree.

Because cecropia trees are protected by Azteca ants, the cecropia cricket collects only those seeds that fall to the ground. And since the trees only produce seeds at certain times of the year, it is believed that the cricket spends much time collecting seeds when they are available and storing them in underground larders.