Sometimes one feels very honoured by a garden visitor. Some insects are welcomed almost solely on the grounds that they are not aphids. Some because they might even eat a few! Some are simply interesting.
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| The Speckled Bush-Cricket - Leptophyes punctatissima It may take an aphid snack but, mostly, it's vegetarian. September 4th 2011 |
The Speckled Bush Cricket is not rare - it's just that we don't see them often in our garden so, when we do, we get quite excited because it looks dramatic. When we first came across one, we thought it might even be DANGEROUS! (Sometimes we forget where we are!) But the curvey spike at the back of this one is not a sting but an ovipositor. So . . . this is a female, for an ovipositor is the tube through which eggs are deposited in stems or under bark.
Her body is about an inch long, her antennae and legs are VERY long. (There's scientific precision for you!)
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While I was wandering around the internet looking for information, I came across a link for the Speckled Bush Cricket on Plymouth City Council's website and went to investigate.
Following through from environment to nature conservation to wildlife species. . . one gets to a cricket, grass-hopper and ground-hopper page with a list at the side so you an find out about each kind - like the Speckled Bush Cricket. I am impressed! There's even a page which gives links for gardeners interested in wild-life conservation and suggests taking up an allotment - with a link so you can find all about them and apply for one if you wish.
Pretty good, eh?
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And over on my other blog, there's a little crop of posts.Would you Like a Book? - The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Wednesday Word When it Isn't a Wednesday - Would roses be better off if they were called 'Nasturtiums'?
What Would Be Done if A Meteor Were Heading for Earth? - People search my blogs for surprising subjects!
Sleep, Creep, Leap - A Review of the book by fellow blogger, Benjamin Vogt.
5 comments:
You realize that I will be clicking on links to learn the difference between crickets, grasshoppers and groundhoppers, right? Inquiring minds want to know. :D
Ooh never seen one of those before - wonder where it came from
I had a cricket in my garden on one of the the rare hot days this summer. Just between the plants. I was surprised to see it. During our holiday in the french Jura we met a guy who was specialized in crickets and grasshoppers, he could tell exactly what kind was hopping ahead of us.
Regards, Annet
Beautifully captured!
Not so far from where I live is an English Nature reserve called Castle Hill. It's a very beautiful place in a fold of the South Downs, and filled with fantastic downland flowers. The only bee orchid I've ever seen was here - so you'd think that's why it's a reserve. But no, it's a reserve because it has a colony of wart biter crickets. No, I'd never heard of them either! Quite like to see one, though in the meantime I think you're speckled bush cricket is very fine.
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