RAUK - Archived Forum - Native Crickets

Been walking on the south coast path near Branscombe today - very hot - lots of interesting flowers, butterflies and a large dark bush cricket. I get these in my garden and I was amazed to hear them calling in November. I have several types of grasshopper live in the garden but no idea on what they are!

I get other crickets as well but probably like many people am a bit poor on ID. Nice to go for a walk with my son who is like Mick and interested in them AND good on ID.

Thanks guys, three replies already, excellent! As with herptiles, i'm always still learning (even at 40!) & wouldn't ever profess to being any more than an amateur, & just like yourself, Caleb, i'm certainly no expert on our orthopterans but over about the last 8y'rs i've just become more & more fascinated by them. I think it was from several of our herptiles including these fair sized - & so relatively easy to study - bugs in their diets that my interest in them just blossomed. We've hardly got the diversity of them that continental europe enjoys (yet!) but many people would still be quite surprised to learn the amount of species we have got though, which includes a few biggies, our largest - & noisiest! - being the Great Green Bush-Cricket (over 2"long, & when basking with limbs stretched about 3.25"long!). Unfortunately, Caleb, the majority of grasshopper & cricket species (orthoptera also including ground hoppers, locusts, stick-insects, cockroaches & earwigs) in the UK are presently in & around the south & stretching about a third to half way up our east & west coasts. Of the hopping variety of orthopterans in Co. Durham, my treasured copy of GRASSHOPPERS & ALLIED INSECTS of Great Britain & Ireland (Harley Books / order ISBN 0-946589-36-4) reveals species of those to be found there are: Common Green Grasshopper; Field Grasshopper; Meadow Grasshopper; Mottled Grasshopper, & one of the mini type of grasshoppers, the Common Ground-hopper (which can hibernate, & even swim!). Another possibly still Co. Durham existing species is the alien House-Cricket. Take account though that, although i'd definately very highly recommend the above mentioned book, no book can quite keep pace with the present expanding distribution rate of a few of our orthopterans (nor new aliens). As for the calls of the UK's grasshoppers & crickets, i'm not sure of any websites with playable recordings of them on. But, like the title of that book, there's also a cheap, 30minute audio cassette you could order from any good book shop (or, probably on-line too) called, A Sound Guide to the Grasshoppers & Allied Insects of Great Britain & Ireland (again Harley Books / order ISBN 0 946589 22 4). I've got a cassette of it & it's pretty good, with 26 songful species recorded in various single, courtship & group situations.

LAF, that's a lovely close-up Conehead photo' your missus took. Glad you advised her to send the record in & hopefully she might get credited with a new grid referenced location find, especially seen as it's Short-Winged Conehead's that are known from Kent, & if - as i think - Long-Winged Conehead's are now also colonising there, then that's only relatively recently. Kent's anyhow an absolutely superb county for its variety of orthoptera. Long-Winged Conehead's have really expanded their range though, now even way inland to central England & the top tip of north Oxfordshire, where i am. I believe i'm down as having first discovered them here in Banbury, near & around our reservoir. I always send in records which i know, or suspect to be fresh finds. Without seeing a micro close-up of the cerci, or a side view of the ovipositor, i couldn't really say for sure which of our two native Conehead species your missus' one is (& i could be wrong but fairly sure i somewhere heard an alien 3rd species might've been discovered here!(?)). But anyway, your knowledge is hardly seriously limited, as your quite correct on what you said of female Conehead's egg-laying ovipositors. Whereas the Long-Winged Conehead ovipositor is nearly straight, the Short-Winged-Conehead ovipositor is upcurved. I'd say the pretty girl in the photo' is about 2/3rds grown. Stay Fascinated!

Suzi, where you were, or are, at Branscombe, there's no shortage of orthopteran variety there! Also, that's just a stone's throw from the UK's top two outstanding sites for orthoptera, namely Dorset & The New Forest. Dark Bush-Crickets are one of our longest annual survivors of grasshoppers & crickets. I myself in 2002 recorded Dark B-C nymphs out on april 5th &, believe it, or not, adults have been found alive into December! (Doubt capable of more than maybe a swan-song by then though!) Anyway, glad to hear your son's into orthoptera & is able to help you with identifying species. He's obviously a wise chap who appreciates the little things in life, & their songs! Why not look on the net, or borrow a book, or two of his & polish up on identifying for yourself?, although i'd have to say i often still have trouble positively visually identifying a few of our grasshoppers. Anyway, cheers all!      

Mick

Thanks for the reply. I get several sorts of grasshoppers in the garden so will have to look more carefully and take some pix to perhaps get an ID.

I live in East Devon BTW. Branscombe is quite near to me. It's good some days to go walking in the hedged lanes and hear the many crickets calling.

Well eventually their chirping will disappear as we get older - we lose that part of our hearing - I remember walking round a site with a badger consultant a few years older than me - well 40 or 50 years older - I kept asking him can you hear all those crickets - answer NO

So I have a bat detector ready for the day when i can no longer hear the little critters.....

I have meadow grass hoppers on my lawn and speckled bush crickets on the runners this year

It's true about losing our ability to hear the crickets. My son will often point their chirping out to me and if I stop I can hear them but I'm seldom the one to hear them first.

I can recognise most inland birds by their song or calls and dread the day when I can no longer hear birdsong. Both my parents (77) can no longer hear warblers singing.

Suzi, although Oxfordshire's nice enough, i envy you living in such a beautiful part of the country as Devon. I haven't visited there for years now, but i recall whenever i did i absolutely adored it, & i've got very fond memories of it. Anyway, i don't know if your son's ever told you, or not, but in Devon you're lucky enough to have at least 20 species of orthopterans made up out of grasshoppers, ground-hoppers & crickets! Also an orthopteran, you've even got naturalised Prickly Stick-insects in a few South Devon localities! Plus!, you're close to the top two outstanding UK orthoptera sites, those being The Dorset Heathlands & The New Foreast.    

Gemma, some orthopterans are indeed meant to be good indicators of good, rich fauna & flora habitats, just as, ironically, the spread northwards of some orthopterans - especially winged ones - is an indicator of global warming. Mind you, global warming won't bother the likes of Vivip' lizards for a while yet because as you said, they love munchin' through grasshoppers & crickets wherever they land! And yes, i couldn't stress enough that the book i've previously mentioned titled, Grasshoppers & allied Insects of Great Britain & Ireland, (also covers the Channel Islands) is definately the book to go for. Key it in & see what others say, but i promise that if you then order a copy, you won't regret it for a second! It's regarded as practically the definitive bible for our orthopteroid insects. Paperback version (published 1990) costs about ú20 & its 254 pages of text, drawings, colour plates, habitat photo's & distribution maps is worth every single penny!,..certainly one of the best value for money books i've ever bought.   

Peter, around now is peak activity time for our hopping orthopterans & so i'm well chuffed to hear you're getting out there & getting well stuck in to identifying & enjoying everything about them. Hopefully you'll report anything you suspect previously unknown of at a location to your county wildlife recording scheme officer, &/or the Biological Records Centre, Cambs. I think reporting your Roesel's Bush-Cricket sighting might prove worthwhile as that's one species that's still rapidly spreading its distribution. It's fairly loud, electrical discharge sounding buzz has been turning up all over the place here in north Oxfordshire where i am!, which i'm happy with as it's one of my favourites. 

Mick,

We've got a Roesel's bush cricket near our house in Weldon, Northants. I've also found them near Fineshades Wood (also Northants). This summer we have a small colony of around 5-7 possibly grey bush crickets (or dark bush crickets) on our close. The past two years we've also had an oak bush cricket make an appearance (but not this year).

I do have photos and video of the Roesel's BC.

Excellent stuff!, darrentshaw. Do report all these to your countys wildlife species recording scheme, won't you? The continued spread rate of Roesel's (often somehow in tandem with Long-Winged Coneheads) is amazing! Over the last few days i've been recording no end of sites along the edges of Banbury where Roesel's & L-W Coneheads (mainly none macropterous forms seen) have moved in. I've already sent all those records in to the Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre where i'll likely be name credited with those finds (my lifes only chance of claims to fame!). Those other crickets would've most likely been Dark B-C's by the way (they chirp at night) as Greys are almost strictly coastal. And as Oak's are largely just tree living (& silent to us) it wouldn't mean there's none about just because you've not spotted any this year. They're elusive alright, but they're also actually rather common. I know for a fact they've always been, & still are, here in Banbury but annoyingly i've never seen ONE here myself! You've very likely also got Speckled B-C's (silent to hear, unless within inches, or using a bat detector) about in your neck of the woods, another common but often fairly hard to spot species. I myself tend to camcord' more often than photo' stuff.

this chap was rather large

quiet friendly too

sorry about the pic size its come out abit on the massive size

 A great green bush -cricket Tettigonia viridissima ?

Jon

i survey bats, the racket from these chaps is unbelieveable sometimes

you can also listen to rats and mice on them