Conocephalus discolor (Thunberg, 1815)

Photos: Click on a thumbnail to see a larger picture.

Status: British Isles native species.

Description: Slender green cricket with brown wings and brown stripe along the back.

Size: 16-22 mm

Wings: Fully winged, with wings extending beyond the tip of the abdomen. An extra-long-winged form exists with much longer wings – reaching the end of the ovipositor or beyond in females.

Stridulation: Faint, prolonged hissing sound inaudible to many

Recordings: Note, your ability to play these recordingsdepends upon the configuration of your computer and browser.

The Long-winged Conehead heard clearly with a bat detector and similar to the Short-winged Conehead
Source: Malcolm Lee

The Long-winged Conehead's long call can slow down like this but generally does not. Recorded with a bat detector.
Source: Malcolm Lee

Food: Omnivorous, feeding on grasses as well as small insects.

Habitat: Coarse vegetation in ungrazed downland, urban wasteland, coastal reedbeds, dry heaths and bogs. Females bite a hole in hollow stems of grass, reed or rush, and then insert an egg with their ovipositor.

Phenology: Nymphs emerge in late May and June. Adults present from August until early winter.

Distribution: The records held by the National Biodiversity Network are shown in the map below.

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Only the following datasets are included:

• Biological Records Centre - Grasshopper and Cricket (Orthoptera) and related species records from Britain and Ireland to 2007

Other datasets on the gateway may hold additional information.