David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
__________________________________________________Grasshoppers
and Crickets 12 - Great Green Bush Crickets
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
ovipositor
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
GREAT GREEN BUSH CRICKET Tettigonia viridissima (f)
- Once seen, the impressive Great Green Bush Cricket Tettigonia viridissima
will not be easily forgotten – particularly if one of these huge insects
unexpectedly takes to the air! The photographs were taken in southern
France and Portugal and they illustrate adult females. The sturdy and
slightly de-curved ovipositor is clearly illustrated. Ovipositors have two
uses. The first is laying eggs and the second is to assist entomologists
with their identification. This is the largest Bush Cricket in the UK
although it is only found in the South. However, it is very common in
Europe, producing amazing crepuscular/nocturnal choruses in the marshlands
of northern France that are even audible from a speeding train! The stridulation (song)* produced
by all male British Bush Crickets (with the exception of the Oak and Southern Oak Bush Crickets)
is generated by rubbing the toothed stridulatory
ridge on the left forewing against a 'scraper' on the right forewing.
Despite its size this species can be frustratingly difficult to locate as
it is extremely well camouflaged against the vegetation in which it lives.
The stridulation of the Great Green Bush Cricket
is very loud and distinctive, carrying quite some distance (up to 50
metres), but when one closes in on the cricket the exact source of the
sound is hard to find. The stridulation is ventriloquial and it may be necessary to search for
the insect at some length before actually seeing it! In order to pinpoint
the exact position it is sometimes helpful for the observer to listen with
alternate ears directed towards the presumed origin of the noise and then split
the difference. This ploy also works for several other species,
particularly Roesel's Bush Cricket Roeseliana roeselii
(illustrated elsewhere on this web site).
- *An excellent account of the stridulatory mechanisms of Orthoptera
may be found in 'Grasshoppers
and Crickets of Surrey', David W. Baldock, Surrey Wildlife Trust, 1998. ISBN 0 9526065 4
2 - see: http://www.surreywildlifetrust.co.uk/ for further
information about the Surrey
Wildlife Atlas series. This comprehensively illustrated
book contains reproductions of the song diagrams for Surrey species (i.e. for
the substantial majority of the British fauna)
originally published in 'Grasshoppers,
Crickets and Cockroaches of the British Isles' by David
Ragge. This second book is unfortunately out
of print but there may be second-hand copies available from specialist
booksellers. Experienced observers will develop the ability to read the song
diagrams (these days undoubtedly with the assistance of on-line
recordings) and develop the skills required to identify these insects
without actually seeing them in much the same way as a birdwatcher can
identify birds by their songs or calls. This is a useful tool for
performing site surveys when available field study time may be limited –
but for older observers unable to hear the higher frequencies recording
equipment may be required akin to that used for identifying bats!
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