Species: Lesser Marsh Grasshopper (Chorthippus albomarginatus)
Family: Grasshoppers and Locusts (TETTIGONIIDAE)
Category: Insects (Other)
Location: Widespread
A. Insects (Other)
More extensive information on insects can be found in a separate blog post.
B. Grasshoppers and Locusts (TETTIGONIIDAE)
Although Bush-crickets and Grasshoppers are related, there are distinct differences between the two families. Crickets stridulate by rubbing their wings together at dusk, their 'ears' being on their front legs. (In contrast, Grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their hind legs against their wings, their 'ears' being at the base of their abdomen.) Whereas Grasshoppers are mostly herbivores, Crickets are omnivores. Bush-crickets have long, thin antennae (in contrast to the shorter, stockier ones that Grasshoppers have).
The members of the Grasshopper and Locust family have short, stout antennae and the sound producing tympana membranes on the side of the first abdominal segment. The back legs have three segments. They have ridges along the top edge of the thorax, called keels, which are useful for identification. Grasshoppers have a three stage life-cycle, egg, nymph (going through five moulting instar phases, during which the wings gradually develop), and adult, when final wing development occurs. The most notorious members of this family are the locusts, although these are only rarely found in Britain.
We have a photograph-filled blog post about all the grasshoppers and bush-crickets that we have seen in the Cemetery that may be worth your time.
C. Lesser Marsh Grasshopper (Chorthippus albomarginatus)
This brown, green or grey species has straight keels.
Images
Lesser Marsh Grasshopper
The back legs of this family of grasshoppers have three segments. They have ridges along the top edge of the thorax, called keels, which are useful for identification.
Lesser Marsh Grasshopper
Lesser Marsh Grasshoppers can occur in dry vegetation, not just in damp areas as the name suggests. The white stripe on the leading edge of the wing is characteristic of this species, as are the nearly parallel sides of the pronotum (the plate behind its head), and the absence of black knee patches to their rear legs.
Lesser Marsh Grasshopper
The white stripe on the leading edge of the wing is characteristic of the Lesser Marsh Grasshopper.
