Can anyone id this wee chap?

[Crepuscular Ray]

Obviously it's some form of grasshopper/cricket. It was sitting on a pansy leaf in E. Sussex at the weekend and was about 3/4 in long.

[androcles]

Obviously it's some form of grasshopper/cricket. It was sitting on a pansy leaf in E. Sussex at the weekend and was about 3/4 in long.

It is a cricket - an English cricket. You can easily tell - it doesn't move very quickly.

[Rustynailer]

Its relatively young, some species (there are 10 in UK)go darker with age and grow long wings, lovely noise at night. Ours keep chirping till October some years, by August we have them in the garden usually, in the wildlife area we keep overgrown a bit for such things

Russ

Edited July 24, 2007 by Rustynailer

[Crepuscular Ray]

Have now heard back from a friend who knows a lot more than I do about insects (and has lots of books), and she says that it's an adult female speckled bush cricket. They're apparently quite common in the south of England, although I've never see one before.

[Zenarcher]

Interesting i never knew that.

[Soaring Hawk]

Have now heard back from a friend who knows a lot more than I do about insects (and has lots of books), and she says that it's an adult female speckled bush cricket. They're apparently quite common in the south of England, although I've never see one before.

I've also seen them in my garden here in East Anglia CR. Also seen similar but much more yellow ones which I don't know how to identify.

[Nick F]

Yes, that's a Common Bush Cricket, often hear them chirping in bushes and hedges, though they go quiet after dark. Often used to find them in the house if doors were left open in the summer when I used to live in the countryside.

The way you can tell the difference between crickets and grasshoppers is crickets have long antennae whereas grasshoppers have short antennae.

Crickets and grasshoppers are most common and audible in South/Central England and Wales from July onwards, though their Northern range is apparently spreading further and further North with GW.

[Hiya]

Yes, that's a Common Bush Cricket, often hear them chirping in bushes and hedges, though they go quiet after dark. Often used to find them in the house if doors were left open in the summer when I used to live in the countryside.

The way you can tell the difference between crickets and grasshoppers is crickets have long antennae whereas grasshoppers have short antennae.

Crickets and grasshoppers are most common and audible in South/Central England and Wales from July onwards, though their Northern range is apparently spreading further and further North with GW.

I've never seen or heard a cricket in Scotland, but Grasshoppers are very common with nearly every piece of long grass buzzing away.

Intresting about their range expanding. Furthest north I've ever heard a grasshopper is Aviemore, anyone beat that? (oh the joys of a broken down car on the A9 in 1988)

[Nick F]

I've never seen or heard a cricket in Scotland, but Grasshoppers are very common with nearly every piece of long grass buzzing away.

Intresting about their range expanding. Furthest north I've ever heard a grasshopper is Aviemore, anyone beat that? (oh the joys of a broken down car on the A9 in 1988)

Yes I suppose grasshoppers are pretty widespread around the UK, while crickets tend to be limited to the drier and warmer South.

There is a particular cricket the 'field cricket' which used to be quite common in Sern England but has in recent decades become very rare (due to destruction of habitat). They are distinct in that they make a load mechanical noise night and day in summer using their legs near their burrows in short grassland, they are short and shiny black in appearance. There have been ongoing projects to re-introduce them at secret locations with suitable habitats in Sern England in recent years. They are very common on the continent though.