Speckled bush-cricket

Speckled bush-cricket
Nymph
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Phaneropteridae
Genus: Leptophyes
Species: L. punctatissima
Binomial name
Leptophyes punctatissima
(Bosc, 1792)
Sound of Leptophyes punctatissima
Field recording in the Netherlands 27s
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The speckled bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) is a flightless species of bush-cricket that occurs across most of Europe.

Description

The grass-green body, which is about 15 millimetres (0.59 in) long, carries minute black specks, as reflected in the common and Latin name of the species; in addition, the dorsal surface of the abdomen features a brown stripe; this is more pronounced in the male.[1][2] A yellow-white stripe extends backwards from the eyes.[3] The lower legs and feet are brownish.[2] The antennae are twice as long as the body.[1] The species is brachypterous: the male's forewings are reduced to small flaps, and those of the female are even more reduced.[1][2] The hindwings are completely absent, and both males and females are flightless.[1][2]

The female's ovipositor is laterally compressed and curves sharply upwards.[1][2] The song of the male, produced by rubbing the right wing against a tooth-like projection at the base of the left,[1] is short (1 to 10 ms) and feeble; at a frequency of 40 kHz, it can best be heard with the aid of a bat detector. Unlike other cricket species, the female is able to respond to the male's calls with a weaker call of her own, which attracts the male to her.[1]

The speckled bush-cricket is quite a common species, but its colouring and secretive lifestyle, hidden away in the undergrowth, mean that it often passes unnoticed.[2]

Distribution

The speckled bush-cricket is common across much of Europe – it ranges from the British Isles, France and [Belgium] in the west to the European parts of Russia in the east, and from southern Scandinavia in the north to southern Italy, Bulgaria and Greece; it has been recorded as far south as Palestine.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Spotlight on speckled bush-cricket, boxvalley.co.uk
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Grasshoppers, Bush-crickets and Ground-hoppers (Orthoptera), Plymouth City Council
  3. 1 2 Harz, Kurt (1969). Orthopteren Europas/The Orthoptera of Europe. Springer. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-90-6193-115-7.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Leptophyes punctatissima.
Speckled bush-cricket
(Leptophyes punctatissima)
Speckled bush cricket nymph 
Female with upwards-curving ovipositor 
Close-up view of ovipositor 
Male with rudimentary wings on top of his back 
In the female, the wings are even more reduced 
Southern England Bush Cricket 
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