The Worcestershire field filled with a million crickets

Five grasshoppers and crickets per square metre

August 2011: Wildlife experts estimate that at least 340kg of grasshoppers and crickets are living in one field of a Worcestershire nature reserve.

CRICKET GROUND: Roesel's bush crickets are among those that have been found in the nature reserve
Volunteers have counted an average of five grasshoppers and crickets per square metre in a field at Hill Court Farm nature reserve near Longdon in the south of the county. Based on this count, this one field alone, at more than 22 hectares in size, is home to over 1,136,500 grasshoppers and crickets.


Rob Allen, conservation officer for the Worcestershire Wildlife Trust which owns the nature reserve, said: ‘When we bought the reserve ten years ago the land was being used as an intensive dairy and arable farm. We've been working hard to recreate grazing marshes, wetlands and wildlife-friendly farmland.

‘Some of the species we're trying to encourage to return to the land are seriously affected by human disturbance so the nature reserve isn't generally open to the public.

‘We've recently had reports of many grassland insects on the reserve - some rarities as well as these fantastic numbers of grasshoppers and crickets.'

Some newcomers to the county
‘We think that an average grasshopper weighs around 300mg, crickets a little more. That equates to more than 340kg in just one field.'

Among the several species of grasshoppers and crickets found have been Roesel's bush cricket and long-winged coneheads. These are both relative newcomers to the county, having travelled north from the continent in the last couple of decades.


Another very new species to the county is Corizus hyoscyami. This red and black bug is usually found in sandy habitats of southern England but is now regularly being found inland, although few have been recorded in Worcestershire.

NEWCOMER: The Corizus hyoscyami

Rob continued: ‘We've also recently had a record of a six-belted clearwing moth. These scarce but attractive insects are associated with bird's-foot trefoil, one of their foodplants. The pupae live underground among the roots of the plant and need large areas of uncultivated flower-rich grassland.

‘The insect life found here is very promising for the future; a healthy insect population is part and parcel of a diverse ecosystem and well-functioning food-chain.'

'Monster' of insect world, the great green cricket, spotted for first time in region

Thursday, August 19, 2010

A MONSTER of the insect world has been found lurking in our region for the first time.

The discovery of the great green bush cricket on wasteland in west Hull is exciting naturalists across East Yorkshire.

Naturalist Barry Warrington spotted the rare green insect while walking on a footpath along the Humber bank.

He managed to photograph the unusual male cricket, which has ears on its front legs, before it slunk back into the undergrowth.

The great green, which grows up to three inches long, has been seen only once previously in Yorkshire.

Mr Warrington, 32, of Buttfield Road, Hessle, said: "I was looking for insects when I made this discovery.

"I was on wasteland next to a footpath on the Humber bank trying to find a migrant hawker dragonfly.

"I was peering into a bush when I noticed a different shade of green, which turned out to be a huge cricket.

"I was gob-smacked. I had never seen anything like it before."

Accountant Mr Warrington, a keen wildlife photographer, managed to snap the striking insect.

He said: "It was pure luck I found it, but at the time I didn't know exactly what I had found.

"I showed the pictures to experts, who identified it as the great green bush cricket, which is usually seen only in the south.

"It is only just beginning to sink in how significant this discovery is."

The first time the great green was spotted in the county was in Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire last year.

Mr Warrington also found another rare insect, a speckled bush cricket, in the same area of west Hull this year.

He said: "I can't believe I found two rare crickets in such a short space of time.

"But seeing the male great green was really thrilling because it is Britain's biggest insect and a real monster."

Experts who study insects, called entomologists, have also been excited by his unusual discoveries.

Entomologist Dr David Chesmore, of York University, said: "It is exciting a great green bush cricket has been seen in Yorkshire for only the second time.

"It would be even more exciting if we could discover if this particular male was breeding where it was found."

Dr Chesmore was also impressed with Mr Warrington's discovery of a speckled bush cricket. He said: "The only previously recorded sighting of a speckled in Yorkshire was at Middleton-on-the-Wolds, near Driffield, in 1925.

"The obvious answer for this would be climate change, but the crickets could also have arrived on a vehicle travelling up from the south.

"We will be keeping a close eye on the situation because it would be brilliant if both species had started to breed in Yorkshire."

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/news/Wildlife-photographer-spot-rare-great-green-bush-cricket-East-Yorkshire/article-2545916-detail/article.html