Other Insects

Bush Cricket (Great Green)

livelinkadmin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:17:41 +0000

The Great Green Bush Cricket is the largest insect found in England and can only be found in limited areas in the south around July to October. It prefers to live on rough grassland and on uncut fields which have long tall grass, but it still needs bare patches of grass in its environment so it can lay its egg in the soil.

The Great Green Bush Cricket is about five centimetres in length and is mainly a grass green colour. It has a cone-shaped head with a brown stripe on the top and two long antennae. The Great Green Bush Cricket also has six green legs and its hind legs are very long which help this cricket to jump. It can jump up to a metre in the air. Its wings are green and quite long and they are usually placed over the body when this cricket rests.

Great Green Bush Crickets can often be heard before they are seen, particularly on hot summer afternoons and at night when the males want to attract females. The males sing very loud high-pitched songs and the songs are produced by the male crickets rubbing their hind legs very quickly against their forewings. This action is called ‘stridulation’. Male Great Green Bush Crickets can sing different songs to attract females and the females can listen to the songs by using ears which are situated on their front legs.

Cricket (British Field)

livelinkadmin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:25:28 +0000

British Field Crickets are very rare in England and it is believed that they can only be found if certain sites in West Sussex. In 2003 these crickets could only be found on the Arundel Castle cricket ground in West Sussex and the reason they survived there was because of the bare patches of grass the spectators created in the banks when watching cricket. Very young crickets need to burrow deep into the ground to survive the winter so the bare patches allowed the young crickets to do this.

The British Field Cricket is about two centimetres in length and has a shiny black body with a yellow-orange marking on its back. This cricket can’t fly because it only has two forewings and no hindwings. The forewings are either a dark brown or black colour with a yellow-orange marking at the base.

British Field Crickets can often be heard before they are seen, particularly at night when the males want to attract females. The males often sing in front of their burrows and they produce different songs by rubbing their hind legs very quickly against their forewings. This action is called 'stridulation'.

Earwig (Common)

livelinkadmin — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:18:25 +0000

The Common Earwig is a shiny brown insect that has large tweezer-like pincers at the back of its body. It can be seen throughout the country in gardens, woodlands and in damp crevices in houses. In the day it likes to hide in crevices, under the bark of trees and in hollow plant stems and at night it emerges to feed on plant petals, especially chrysanthemums and dahlias.

The Common Earwig is around one and half centimetres in length and has a flattend body that is long and slender. Its head and abdomen are a dark brown colour and the thorax, which is the middle part of the body, is a lighter chestnut brown colour. The thorax holds three pairs of legs and two sets of wings. The hindwings are soft and fine and the forewings, called ‘elytra’, are short thick and quite hard. The elytra cover and protect the more delicate hindwings. Despite the Common Earwig having wings it is very rarely seen in flight.

The female Common Earwig lays her eggs in crevices or under stones and stays with the eggs to guard them. The female also licks the eggs clean from time to time to stop the eggs getting any fungal infections. After about two to four weeks larvae, called ‘nymphs’, hatch out of the eggs. The nymphs look like miniature adults and after around ten weeks they develop into fully grown Common Earwigs.

Grasshopper (Common Field)

livelinkadmin — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:25:56 +0000

The Common Field Grasshopper is one of the most frequently seen grasshoppers in England, along side the Mottled, the Common Green and the Meadow Grasshopper. It is sometimes mistaken for a cricket although a cricket has quite long antennae and the Common Field Grasshopper has relatively short antennae.

The Common Field Grasshopper is approximately two centimetres in length and is usually a brown colour, but sometimes it can be a green, grey or even a purplish colour. Its body is often covered with darker marking and it has light vertical stripes running down its abdomen. It has six legs and its hind legs are very strong and long which help the grasshopper to hop. This grasshopper very rarely hops, although it can hop a distance of over a metre.

Common Field Grasshoppers like to live in dry grassy areas such as in meadows and fields, but they can also be seen on roadsides and wasteland. They particularly like the sun and are often seen sunning themselves on walls, bare patches of grass and even on paths. Male Common Field Grasshoppers can also be heard ‘chirping’ when they want to attract females. They make the chirping sounds by quickly rubbing their hind legs against their forewings.