Dark Bush Cricket

Pholidoptera griseoaptera:
On summer evenings in the midlands and southern England the hedgerows come alive with the chirring sound of the dark bush cricket. It is the most common of Britain’s ten species of bush cricket, which are also known as long-horned grasshoppers. The song is produced only by the male as it scrapes a toothed vein on its left fore-wing across the thickened edge of the right fore-wing. With these bursts of song it seeks to attract females and communicate its presence to rival males.
Bush crickets eat both plants and soft-bodied insects. Females of the dark bush cricket use their long egg-laying organs to prise open cracks in rotting logs or under bark. They lay single eggs which remain there from autumn until the following April when the nymphs grow into adulthood, when they mate and produce eggs until they are killed by the autumn frosts.
Bush crickets make good food for ground-feeding birds and small rodents, but their camouflage and secretive habits help most to survive and reproduce. All are found in thick vegetation, and most are green to match their surroundings. They can escape danger by leaping a few feet at a time.