After mating underground, the female builds a nesting chamber deep in the soil and lays about 200 oval eggs that hatch after 10 days.

Later instars are grayish-black with white markings, and the last nymphal stage is similar to the adult and exhibits short wing pads.

The adults and late-instar nymphs spend the winter underground at a depth around 1 m.[2] The oriental mole cricket is found in Russia and other parts of the former USSR, China, Japan, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines,[2] and Hawaii, where it seems to have arrived from Asia before 1896.

Its natural habitat include damp, rich soils such as flood plains and the banks of streams and ponds, as well as arable land and gardens.

Besides birds and insectivorous mammals, its natural enemies include ants, which feed on the eggs, beetles, which eat the larvae, nematodes, and mites.

[1] In Asia, the cricket gnaws roots and tubers and causes damage to wheat, barley, oats, rice, maize, beans, vegetable crops, potatoes, and sugar beets.