GREAT GRASSHOPPERS
Join Dave Goulson on a wander through the meadow to learn more about grasshoppers and their cricket cousins.
The churr of grasshoppers in the meadow is one of the sounds of summer. But how much do you know about the lives of these long-legged insects? Dave Goulson leads you into the world of grasshoppers and their cousins, the crickets
Ivividly recall a primary school day-trip to walk up Pontesbury Hill in Shropshire. It was a glorious day, and we ate our packed lunches sitting in the sunshine near the hilltop. After lunch, my friends and I spent a happy half hour or so trying to pounce on grasshoppers and catch them with our hands. The little insects were warm and quick, more often than not at least one jump ahead of our clumsy efforts, but we managed to catch a few and imprisoned them in a lunchbox until our teacher – who was a great lover of wildlife – sternly told us to let them go.
To this day I love nothing more than to lie on my stomach in a grassy meadow, watching male grasshoppers as they bustle about, chirping amorously at passing females and seeing off rivals. Their sound is as much the sound of summer as the buzz of bumblebees, both immediately bringing to mind flowers and grasses swaying in a gentle breeze, and the aromatic smell of meadow herbs baking in the sunshine.
2 Large marsh grasshopper Stethophyma grossum
Our largest grasshopper is a splendid but now very rare insect found in heathland bogs and marshes in Dorset and the New Forest.
Grasshoppers are somehow more endearing than many insects, though it’s hard to say why. Perhaps it’s their largish eyes and slightly cross-eyed appearance, or their usually tuneless but cheerful zithering chirrups and chirps, or maybe the huge hind legs that enable their impressive leaps. For me, I think it is just their association with summer days, or in the case of their crepuscular relatives, the crickets, the association with warm evenings on holiday in France, listening to them singing softly from the shadows.
PREHISTORIC ECHOES
It is odd to think that dinosaurs would have heard these same noises, for grasshoppers and crickets are an ancient group of insects and their song may have been the first on Earth. They originated about 350 million years ago among the giant tree ferns of the Carboniferous period, a time when insects were the only creatures able to fly, and giant dragonfly-like Meganeura, with a wingspan of 60cm, soared among the trees. Grasshoppers lived through the rise and eventual fall of the dinosaurs, surviving the meteor strike 65 million years ago that wiped out most larger animals, and proliferating so
3 Common ground-hopper Tetrix undulata
One of three groundhoppers found in the UK, these insects resemble small chubby grasshoppers.
They are usually found on bare earth, but are hard to spot as they are beautifully camouflaged in a variable array of mottled grey, green and russet. that there are now about 20,000 species of grasshopper and cricket in the world.
Grasshoppers and crickets would make a tasty meal for a bird or lizard, and many have evolved impressive camouflage to avoid being eaten. While most UK species have streaks of green or yellow to blend among grasses, some exotic species resemble small rocks, while others mimic leaves or clumps of lichen. A few species deliberately consume toxic plants to become poisonous themselves, and advertise this with bright red, black and yellow stripes or spots.
Of course, their incessant singing would seem to be a giveaway to potential predators, but
4 Common green grasshopper Omocestus viridulus
This handsome deep-green insect is one of the most widespread UK species, found almost everywhere in damp grasslands and woodland rides.
5 Speckled bush cricket Leptophyes punctatissima
One of the most common crickets in gardens, these small but stout bright-green insects have vestigial wings and are peppered with small black spots.
6 Oak bush cricket Meconema thalassinum
Fairly common in the southern half of England, these small, delicate, almost translucent pale-green crickets are attracted to light so frequently turn up indoors.
7 Great green bush cricket Tettigonia viridissima
One of the UK’s largest insects, this cricket is still moderately common near the coast in the south of England and Wales, where its loud rattling call can be a familiar sound in summer. The female is equipped with a huge pointed ovipositor which she uses to insert eggs into the ground. the sound can be remarkably hard to locate. Grasshoppers generate the noise – officially known as stridulating – by rubbing their hind leg against their wings, very like a bow sliding across the strings of a violin. Crickets rub their forewings together to similar effect. In some UK species, such as Roesel’s bush cricket and the great green bush cricket, the sound they create is so high pitched that older people often cannot hear them at all. Although we might struggle to hear or locate these insects from their song, this is clearly not a problem for potential mates or rivals, which can quickly hone in on the source of the noise. Oddly, while grasshoppers have their ears on their abdomen, cricket ears are on their forelegs.
FADING OUT
Sadly, the song of grasshoppers and crickets is not as common as it once was. Most of the flower-rich meadow habitats in which they thrived were swept away by intensified farming in the 20th century, so that today’s children may never get the chance to catch grasshoppers in their lunch break. One small way in which we can help is by reducing mowing of our lawns. Grasshoppers cannot survive in a short-mown lawn and, along with many other insects,
8 Dark bush cricket Pholidoptera griseoaptera
These distinctive darkbrown insects with yellow undersides are often found in hedgerows, woodland edges, scrub and gardens. Their pleasant, short chirp is a common sound on warm evenings in the southern half of Britain. they are often killed by the blades of mowers, but if you reduce the mowing, ideally leaving part of your lawn for a single late-summer cut, you may be lucky enough to tempt them in to breed. Write to your local council asking them to reduce cutting of road verges and roundabouts, and perhaps our gardens and road verges could create a network of habitat for these charming insects.
9 Field grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus
Another common grasshopper species, found in a range of open, warm habitats including road verges, it can be distinguished from the similar meadow grasshopper by the sharply kinked keels on the
‘pronotum’ – the section immediately behind the head.
10 Long-winged cone-head Conocephalus discolour
These slender green insects with very long, tan-coloured wings have expanded their range in the southern UK in recent years, and may turn up in long grass left uncut in gardens.
11 Wart-biter cricket Decticus verrucivorus
Beautiful, sturdy, emerald green insects camouflaged with black speckles, wart-biters are now found at only a few southern sites, mainly on chalk downland. There have been some successful reintroductions to former sites recently.
12 Field cricket Gryllus campestris
Very handsome black insects with a bulbous head, the field cricket nearly became extinct in the UK, but has been bred in captivity and successfully re-established in the wild at a small number of sites in the south of England.