Penticton bug lover makes rare cricket discovery

Penticton amateur entomologist Luka Bevanda was exploring a quarry in Okanagan Falls this spring when he found a critter he hadn’t seen before.

He was with his friend and biologist Taylor Justason flipping over logs looking for insects at the end of May when the pair saw a North American Jerusalem cricket. Spotting one is a challenge since they spend most of their lives underground.

“I wasn’t expecting to find it and I had to do some research on it after I found it,” Bevanda said. “It was pretty big, around two inches long. It was my first time seeing one.”

He said the cricket was in little hole and he put the log back over it after taking a photo.

The North American Jerusalem cricket is a slow-moving insect with a rounded back that is striped black and tan. They don’t have wings and walk slowly, but have strong jaws that give a painful bite, according to Insect Identification.

The crickets are found under rocks or on sand and gravel in dry climates, like the Okanagan-Thompson region. They drag their large abdomens along the dust with a scraping sound, leaving little trails behind.

Last year, Bevanda found a northern scorpion in Penticton, another hard-to-find creature. 

He has been on the lookout for interesting species since taking an undergrad course in entomology a few years ago. 

“Insects are just neat, there is incredible diversity among them, they all look so different and there is a lot to learn about them,” he said. “My younger sister also has a love for bugs, it runs in the family.”