It is found in southwestern Europe and was first described by the entomologists H. C. Bennet-Clark and Blaine H. Goodposts in 1970 after having realised that it must be a different species from the European mole cricket because of its distinctive song.

[3] The male stridulates by raising and lowering his wing cases repeatedly while scraping the rear edge of the left forewing, which forms a plectrum, against the lower edge of the right forewing, which has a ratchet-like series of teeth.

The male stridulates in his burrow, which is Y-shaped with two horn-shaped openings on the ground surface, and a smooth-walled bulb on the stem of the "Y".

This is just larger than the mole cricket, and he faces into the bulb with his tail near the tunnel fork.

The song is issued in short pulses and is higher pitched and louder than that of the European mole cricket (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa) because G. vineae has more powerful wing muscles, larger wings and deeper teeth on the file part of the mechanism.