Jerusalem cricket
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Tweet n. Any of several nocturnal burrowing orthopteran insects of the subfamily Stenopelmatinae, especially Stenopelmatus fuscus of western North America, having a large round head and a striped abdomen. Also called potato bug. [Perhaps from Jerusalem!, exclamation uttered upon encountering the large insect, or from partial translation during contact between the Navajo and Christian missionaries of Navajo ch'osh bich'ich łichii', red-skull bug (in reference to the skull-like appearance of its head and the hill of Golgotha outside Jerusalem, whose name is said in the Bible (Mark 15:22) to mean place of a skull) .] |
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