A lingering death

This is Mr Cricket, the first visitor I had in my office. Mr Cricket was very silent, without the right leg he didn't have anything to rub the left leg against and chirp.

I got curious and found the leg a couple of feet away, it seemed as though the cricket had drop it in a desperate attempt to shed weight and keep moving for a few more inches, the poor thing was almost dead.

It makes sense, crickets chirp to attract females and then mate, and as this little fella was clearly on its way out, mating was definitely not its priority, food and water probably were.

But then again, crickets jump, surely with both legs it would have gone faster farther? Or maybe it did just that for a while, jumping against the glass trying to get to the grass on the other side, and when the energy level was too low to jump, it shed the legs, just like the space shuttle drops the booster rockets after their fuel is burnt.

I guess I'll have to do some googling to find out about the slow death of crickets. Maybe I'll write a paper about it. What would have happened if the cricket had found food and water after sheding the legs? Would have it grown them back?