Speckled bush cricket - Leptophyes punctatissima - Family: Phaneropteridae

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Speckled bush cricket - Leptophyes punctatissima
© Robin Chittenden www.harlequinpictures.co.uk

A completely flightless, very long-legged cricket, the speckled bush cricket is virtually wingless, apart from the tiny brown flaps on the top of the male's body. It is bright green, conspicuously spotted with very dark red speckles. Its song is very high-pitched and barely audible to the human ear.

It is well camouflaged among vegetation and usually only seen as it hops to bright outdoor lights or windows at night. It lives on well structured vegetation, tall grasses and shrubs, being found as an adult from mid-July through to the autumn. Eggs are laid in bark and the young nymphs hatch the following spring. A common species throughout southern England and the East Midlands, it absent from the North.

Food

Plant feeder on a wide range of fresh vegetation, but never a pest in gardens.

Predators

Common shrew, Hedgehog, Spiders and harvestmen, Wood mouse