Cylindrachetidae

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Ordo: Orthoptera
Subordo: Caelifera
Infraordo: Tridactylidea
Superfamilia: Tridactyloidea

Familia: Cylindrachetidae
Genera: Cylindracheta - Cylindraustralia - Cylindroryctes
Name
Cylindrachetidae Giglio-Tos, 1914

Cylindraustralia kochii

Sandgropers are wholly subterranean apterous insects of the family Cylindrachetidae that may grow up to 7 cm (3 in) long. Three genera are currently recognised: Cylindracheta, Cylindraustralia and Cylindroryctes. Like many subterranean animals, little is known about their habits and diet, but Western Australian farmers have blamed them for substantial crop losses.
Sandgroper2.png

Sandgropers were once thought to be degenerate mole crickets, but they are now known to be more closely related to pygmy mole crickets, in the Caelifera, which includes grasshoppers.

Although widely believed to be herbivorous, some have been found with animal remains in their gut.
Range

Australia:
Cylindracheta is found only in the Northern Territory
Cylindraustralia widely except in the south-east and Tasmania
six species have been recorded in Western Australia of which five are believed to be endemic to that state. C. kochii and C. tindalei are found in the Perth region.
New Guinea:
Cylindraustralia
Argentina:
Cylindroryctes

Popular culture

In the 1970s, television station TVW Channel 7 in Perth, Western Australia released a stuffed toy sandgroper for sale named "Sunny The Sandgroper", with proceeds going towards Telethon. "Sunny Sandgroper" was then used as a regular character, along with Fat Cat and Percy P Penguin, in TVW-7's Earlybirds morning children's show. Western Australians have been known colloquially as sandgropers, with references to the name being found as early as the 1890s.[1]
References
"Sandgropers". Western Australian Museum. Retrieved September 30, 2006.
Marshall Martin (2005-05-21). "Real Sandgroper revealed". ABC.

"Fitzroy City Press". Fitzroy City Press (Vic. : 1881 - 1920). Vic.: National Library of Australia. 31 January 1896. p. 2. Retrieved 23 October 2011.