Life history of a wild field cricket population (Gryllus campestris) in North Spain (2006 to 2016)

Each burrow is flagged with a unique number that will identify it for the whole breeding season. Since the number of occupied burrows is often greater than the number of cameras, and adult crickets regularly move around the meadow occupying different burrows, we carry out direct observations to cover non-videoed burrows. We do this by directly observing the occupants of every burrow that lacks a camera every 1-2 days. We record the ID of any adult present or whether a nymph is in residence. This allows us to accurately record adult emergence dates even in burrows that are not directly monitored at that particular time, as nymphs and recently emerged adults rarely move among burrows, and so the presence of an adult where there was a nymph the day before indicates an emergence. After the end of the season, we watch the videos and record all significant events (adult emergence, encounters between individuals, singing activity, matings, fights and their outcome, oviposition, predator attacks, movement of individuals around the meadow).

The cameras are connected to several computers provided with motion activated digital video recording software (Diginet, dvr-usa.com, replaced in 2011 with i-Catcher, i-codesystems.co.uk) so that video is only recorded when movement is detected around the burrow. After a pilot trial carried out in 2005 with 16 cameras, WildCrickets began in 2006 with 64 cameras, and has been running continuously ever since. In 2017 WildCrickets deployed 140 cameras. Every year, around the start of the adult eclosion period, we install our network of cameras in the meadow, each one covering a burrow and the area around it. Videos are stored using a Digital Video Recording (DVR) system running on several computers in a house located next to the meadow. In a normal year, there are more burrows than crickets and more crickets than cameras, so we move cameras among burrows to maximize the amount of information we record about individual cricket behaviour. Cameras record cricket activity 24 h a day, seven days a week, from the time of the first adult eclosion, until no cricket activity has been observed in any camera for two days. After this we remove the cameras until the following year.

A weather station (Davis Vantage Pro2) installed in the centre of the meadow logs weather variables at ten minute intervals including measurements from seven additional temperature sensors located on the surface of the meadow (three sensors) and in simulated burrows (four sensors inside open-end 15 cm long PVC pipes totally buried in the ground) at locations scattered around the meadow.

This dataset is included in the following collections

Life history and ageing of a wild field cricket (Gryllus campestris) population in North Spain