At first glance, you might think that one of Disney's most loved characters, Jiminy Cricket, is living out his retirement in our local meadow. But if you look closer you'll notice, not only is he not wearing a top-hat, but this little cricket has yet to grow some wings, so he must be a youngster. Thank you to experts at WAB, who helped identify this as a male Great Green Bush-cricket.
This little nymph will grow to a massive 40-50mm, which makes him not only the largest species of cricket but the largest insect, in the UK. Well, actually, the females claim that title, having an extra 20-25mm of ovipositor, but we'll keep that to ourselves as this species can give a nasty bite and we don't want to upset him. Jim (as I've come to think of him) will go through several moults or morphs, finding his wings in stage 6, after which he'll earn himself another medal - loudest singer!
Great Green Bush-crickets are found in limited areas of the south. Rob photographed an adult female, last year, in the same meadow. I wonder if this is his mum?
Great photos and an interesting read Omi. Its a species that I havent seen
ReplyDeleteJason - thank you :) I'm not sure I would have seen it either, if it hadn't been presented to me in a yellow dish.
DeleteWhat a beauty!! It looks lovely posing on the flower, great photos Omi!
ReplyDeleteThank you Jan :) He really is fetching isn't he!
DeleteGreat photos Omi and an interesting read. You learn something new every day! ;)
ReplyDeleteJ
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Thanks John :)
DeleteHi
ReplyDeleteWe think we found one in our rockery we live on the Lizard in cornwall. We were gobsmacked because of it's size, rushed in doors to get wildlife book and only thing that comes close is the great green bush cricket, but our one was easily 10cm in length and then a long brown thin pointy bit coming off the back, is this a female? It was all green and looked absolutely amazing. We watched it for ages, have forgone weeding the rockery as don't want to disturb it. Will keep a watch out again and try to get a photo. honeyinwood@yahoo.co.uk
Hi Honeyinwood, thanks for visiting :) Yes it does sound like a female Great Green. You can see some photos of an adult female on my husband's blog, here:
Deletehttp://thelivingisle.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Great%20Green%20Bush%20Cricket
According to the National Biodiversity Network Gateway, you have got some in your part of the country. You can see a map here:
http://www.searchnbn.net/gridMap/gridMap.jsp?allDs=1&srchSpKey=NHMSYS0001387471
If you manage to catch it on camera, I'd love to see :D Good luck.
Hi omi I have found a cricket in our back garden but im not sure what sort it is. I have been looking on the internet and the picture above seems the closest I can find. I have managed to take a picture of it. If I could somehow show you do you think you could identify it for me? Its just out of curiosity really as ive never seen one before. It really is a lovely creature. Brilliant bright green, very fat, and has no wings.
ReplyDeleteKeri
Hi Keri, I feel honoured that you'd like me to help, hope I can :) Feel free to email a photo to me - omig8z AT gmail.com (take out the gaps and use @ instead of AT) Looking forward to seeing what you've got!
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