Southern Oak Bush-cricket

The countryside in eastern England is looking tired, noticeably more baked and shrivelled than last weekend, despite the recent rain. I spent the morning recording just north of Bourne, but there was very little to photograph on another warm and windy day.

Lucky then, that Pete had brought back this southern oak bush-cricket from Kent. This species is very like our native oak bush-cricket, except that the adults only have vestigial wings. It's a recent British colonist, first recorded from Surrey and Berkshire in 2001, and now recorded as far north as Hull, although it is only frequent in the London area and the extreme south-eastern counties. Its invasion of Britain follows a well documented expansion from southern Europe over the past few decades. Its rapid spread seems somewhat surprising given that it's flightless, although some have suggested that it's hitching lifts on cars and lorries!