{{Short description|Family of cricket-like animals}} {{Automatic taxobox | image = Myrmecophila acervorum.jpg | image_caption = ''Myrmecophilus acervorum'' | taxon = Myrmecophilidae | authority = Saussure, 1874 | synonyms = * Myrmecophiloidea <small>Saussure, 1874</small> * Myrmecophiliens <small>Saussure, 1874</small> }} The '''Myrmecophilidae'''<ref>Saussure (1874) ''Mission scientifique au Méxique et dans l'Amérique centrale'' 6:422.</ref> or '''ant-loving crickets''' are rarely encountered relatives of mole crickets. They are very small, wingless, and flattened, resembling small cockroach nymphs. The few genera contain fewer than 100 species. Ant crickets are yellow, brown, or nearly black in color. They do not produce sound, and lack both wings and tympanal organs ("ears") on the front tibia.
Species of the subfamily Bothriophylacinae live in caves and the burrows of desert vertebrates rather than ant nests. The three extant ant cricket genera (subfamily Myrmecophilinae) are obligate kleptoparasites of ants. They obtain food by soliciting trophallaxis in their host ants or by scraping off waxes from the bodies of ants. <ref>{{Cite book |last=Hölldobler |first=Bert |title=The Guests of Ants |pages=314–316}}</ref>
==Tribes and genera== The ''Orthoptera Species File'' lists two subfamilies:<ref>{{Cite web |title=family Myrmecophilidae Saussure, 1874: Orthoptera Species File |url=http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128906 |access-date=2023-09-01 |website=orthoptera.speciesfile.org}}</ref>
===Bothriophylacinae=== Auth.: Miram, 1934; distribution: northern Africa, western Asia * tribe Bothriophylacini Miram, 1934 **''Bothriophylax'' Miram, 1934 **''Eremogryllodes'' Chopard, 1929 * tribe Microbothriophylacini Gorochov, 2017 **''Microbothriophylax'' Gorochov, 1993
===Myrmecophilinae=== Auth.: Saussure, 1874; distribution: global * tribe Myrmecophilini Saussure, 1874 **''Myrmecophilus'' Berthold, 1827 **''Myrmecophilellus'' Uvarov, 1940 * ''Incertae sedis'' ** †Araripemyrmecophilops Martins-Neto, 1991 ** Camponophilus Ingrisch, 1995
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{Commonscat inline}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q599065}} {{Orthoptera|1}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ant Cricket}} Category:Ensifera Category:Extant Jurassic first appearances