Today I went on the Kent Wildlife Trust's Study Day on Grasshoppers and Bush Crickets run by the excellent Dan and Kate. After the classroom session in the morning we visited both Burham Down and Burham Marshes and found 9 out of the 10 possible species we were looking for. These were the Meadow Grasshopper, the Field Grasshopper and the Lesser Marsh Grasshopper on the Grasshopper side and the Dark Bush-Cricket, Roesel's Bush-Cricket, the Speckled Bush-Cricket, the Oak Bush-Cricket, the Short-Winged Cone-Head and the Long-Winged Cone-Head on the Bush-Cricket side. In addition Dan also found the Common Earwig and the Short-winged Earwig, which are now also included in this insect group, the Orthoptera.
Over the whole day we learnt a huge amount about identifying these common and fascinating insects from their appearance. We also discovered that Grasshoppers and Bush-Crickets can be differentiated to species by the songs the males produce, which can generally be heard more easily by using a "bat" detector. One of the really good species was the Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, which feeds on the quite rare plant the Marsh Mallow, amonst other plants. The Marsh Mallow is only found in a relatively few places in the UK. Burham Marshes and the nearby Holborough Marshes on the other side of The Medway are one of the two sites in Kent, and therefore important.
Amongst many other differences, grasshoppers have short antennae and are herbivorous, while bush crickets have long antennae and eat anything to hand, including each other on occasion!
I didn't get any photographs today, as we were chasing new species so much, but here are some previous attempts from other days, partly to illustrate the difference between the species!
Firstly here are some pictures of a Roesel's Bush Cricket that I saw at Broadwater Forest back in July. We saw this species again today, on the down, and really handsome it is too, with the immediately obvious light U shape picked out on the side of the thorax!
Picture to come.
Secondly, this is the Dark Bush Cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera, seen on Wednesday at the Elgar Wildlife Pond in the College grounds. It often gets darker than this individual, but I am still reasonably confident that this is the correct identification. This one is a female, as seen from the huge curved ovipositor projecting out at the back, in the picture directly below, and one of the lower pictures. This is used to insert the eggs into the soil or a plant stem, or in this case into fissures in wood, as is this species' habit.
This is the very common Meadow Grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus, this one found on a grassy path by farmland on the Southern outskirts of "Hadlow Castle". Its not very easy getting photos inside, and I'm afraid it soon hopped off, leaving me with not very many images to work with! Still, the parallel sides to the pronotum (the shield over the thorax) and the black knees of the huge jumping hind legs are I think fairly clear.
This is a male, with reasonable lengthy wings, and the tip of the abdomen is turned up and just starting to turn orange.
Over the whole day we learnt a huge amount about identifying these common and fascinating insects from their appearance. We also discovered that Grasshoppers and Bush-Crickets can be differentiated to species by the songs the males produce, which can generally be heard more easily by using a "bat" detector. One of the really good species was the Lesser Marsh Grasshopper, which feeds on the quite rare plant the Marsh Mallow, amonst other plants. The Marsh Mallow is only found in a relatively few places in the UK. Burham Marshes and the nearby Holborough Marshes on the other side of The Medway are one of the two sites in Kent, and therefore important.
Amongst many other differences, grasshoppers have short antennae and are herbivorous, while bush crickets have long antennae and eat anything to hand, including each other on occasion!
I didn't get any photographs today, as we were chasing new species so much, but here are some previous attempts from other days, partly to illustrate the difference between the species!
Firstly here are some pictures of a Roesel's Bush Cricket that I saw at Broadwater Forest back in July. We saw this species again today, on the down, and really handsome it is too, with the immediately obvious light U shape picked out on the side of the thorax!
Picture to come.
Secondly, this is the Dark Bush Cricket, Pholidoptera griseoaptera, seen on Wednesday at the Elgar Wildlife Pond in the College grounds. It often gets darker than this individual, but I am still reasonably confident that this is the correct identification. This one is a female, as seen from the huge curved ovipositor projecting out at the back, in the picture directly below, and one of the lower pictures. This is used to insert the eggs into the soil or a plant stem, or in this case into fissures in wood, as is this species' habit.
This is the very common Meadow Grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus, this one found on a grassy path by farmland on the Southern outskirts of "Hadlow Castle". Its not very easy getting photos inside, and I'm afraid it soon hopped off, leaving me with not very many images to work with! Still, the parallel sides to the pronotum (the shield over the thorax) and the black knees of the huge jumping hind legs are I think fairly clear.
This is a male, with reasonable lengthy wings, and the tip of the abdomen is turned up and just starting to turn orange.
No comments:
Post a Comment