Tetrix subulata (Linnaeus, 1758)

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Status: British Isles native species.

Description: Small grasshopper-like insect with wide ‘shoulders’ and a narrow tapering abdomen hidden beneath an extended pronotum. Wings exceed the tip of the pronotum. The distance between the eyes is greater than in the very similar Cepero’s Groundhopper (greater than 1.5 times the width of an eye).

Size: 9-14 mm

Wings: Fully winged, capable of flight and adults can swim.

Stridulation: None.

Food: Herbivorous, feeding on algae, mosses and lichens.

Habitat: Bare mud and short vegetation in damp, unshaded locations. Particularly associated with base-rich or calcareous soils (dune slacks, limestone sea cliffs and floodplains and fens where the ground water is alkaline). Eggs are laid directly into the ground or in low vegetation.

Phenology: Late instar nymphs and immature adults overwinter and mature in spring. Nymphs appear from May to July; adults appear by August.

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.