Common Bush-Crickets

Common Bush-crickets

Grasshopper or Bush-cricket?

short antennae long antennae females have a long (shorter than body) (longer than body) egg-laying organ see reverse of this sheet (ovipositor)

Roesel’s bush-cricket Metrioptera roeselii Dark bush-cricket Pholidoptera griseoaptera

- long grass - hedges - roadsides - brambles - field margins - woodland • cream-coloured crescent on shoulder • 2-3cm • dark brown and black • very short or no wings • 2-3cm • brown colour • usually short wings • song: short chirps at intervals; set bat detector to c. 22kHz: • song: a loud, continuous, high buzz like overhead power cables; heard well through a bat detector set to c. 20kHz

Long-winged conehead Conocephalus discolor Speckled bush-cricket Leptophyes punctatissima

• green body • long brown wings • 2-3cm David© Browne - gardens • song: a faint continuous “chuffing”, best heard with a bat • very short wings • 1-2.5cm • female has broad, detector set to about 30kHz: • green with fine black speckles upcurved ovipositor • song: very faint ticks every 3-5 seconds; with a bat detector set to 40kHz these are heard as very loud clicks song diagrams © David Ragge Oak bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum Great Green bush-cricket Tettigonia viridissima

Steven© Falk

© Sean© McCann • long wings • pale green colour • 1.5 -2cm • song continuous, harsh, loud; late afternoon & into night: • nocturnal and attracted to light, sometimes found indoors • the related Southern Oak bush-cricket has short wings Common Grasshoppers & Groundhoppers

Meadow Grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus Field Grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus

Stephen© Plant - short, dry - all kinds of patchy grass rough grass • lines on shoulders • rear end of shoulder shield • female usually • lines on shoulders • 1-2cm strongly indented has got pale patches short-winged almost straight • often green • hairy underside • 1.5 -2.5cm • song: scratchy bursts of chirps; set bat detector to c. 10kHz : • song: a series of short soft buzzes; set detector to c. 10kHz

Lesser Marsh Grasshopper Chorthippus albomarginatus Common Green Grasshopper Omocestus viridulus

Patrick Clement © - damp grass - damp grass - increasingly - meadows © Tristan© Bantock in drier areas & hillsides • • usually white line on wing • straight lines • 1.5-2.5cm • lines on shoulders incurved , 1.5-2.5cm • • often light brown on shoulders • long wings marked white or cream long wings • song: a series of longer, soft chirps, about 3s apart; c.10kHz • song a fast ticking of increasing volume, 10+s long; 10kHz

Mottled Grasshopper Myrmeleotettix maculatus Common Groundhopper Tetrix undulata

Livermore

- bare ground, - damp or dry, open grass dry bare - heathlands, Tim© Ransom ground with dunes, quarries mosses and • clubbed antennae , not white-tipped • 1-2cm lichens • song: a crescendo of buzzy chirps, c. 10kHz • rounded head • shoulder shield as long as body • 1cm • keel on shoulder shield very prominent • does not sing

Slender Groundhopper Tetrix subulata Further reading: Record your observations online at:

www.orthoptera.org.uk

www.brc.ac.uk/irecord

- damp, bare Attach a photo to

ground with receive verification mud or Grasshoppers & Related very short Insects Recording Scheme vegetation

• shoulder shield much longer than body • 1cm • • keel on shoulder shield low, not prominent does not sing www.wildguideuk.com