Southern Oak Bush-cricket

The Southern Oak Bush-cricket is a carnivorous, nocturnal and arboreal species.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Meconema meridionale
Family: 
Bush Crickets
Family Latin name: 
TETTIGONIIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

The wings of the Southern Oak Bush-cricket remain as tiny flaps, often giving it the resemblance of a large nymph of a different species. This species was considered absent from Britain in the 1980s, so has migrated northwards from Europe in recent decades - which is interesting given that it is flightless. 

This is a carnivorous, nocturnal and arboreal species, so we were lucky to photograph it in the Cemetery on a gravestone in mid-afternoon in September 2021. It does not stridulate but instead drums a hind leg on a leaf in short bursts.

 The individual photographed here (the one on a headstone) is a male, with a pair of cerci that might be 4mm in length.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
The Southern Oak Bush-cricket is a carnivorous, nocturnal and arboreal species.
This is a male Southern Oak Bush-cricket.

Details

Species family information

Bush-crickets are a large family that includes the bush-crickets and katydids, formerly called the long-horned grasshoppers. 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). 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.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!