Leptophyes punctatissima (Bosc, 1792)

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

Status: British Isles native species.

Description: A small, green bush cricket with a brown stripe on the back and tiny dark speckles covering the whole body. The ovipositor is broad and upturned.

Size: 9-18 mm

Wings: Both sexes have very short, reduced wings.

Stridulation: The song is an almost inaudible chirp repeated at intervals, best picked up with a bat detector.

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

The Speckled Bush-Cricket is only audible with a bat detector, making a distinctive tick every few seconds.
Source: Malcolm Lee

Food: Herbivorous, feeding on a range of shrubs and other vegetation.

Habitat: Open woodland, scrub, gardens and hedgerows. Eggs are laid in the bark of trees or shrubs.

Phenology: Adults present from late July or early August until November.

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.