Roesel's bush-cricket

I have a special liking for Roesel's bush cricket. My first paid job as an ecologist was as a botanical surveyor in East London, working with a team of entomologists (one of which was Pete!). We were collecting data for sites of wildlife interest in the five east London Boroughs, and were based in an outpost of the Passmore Edwards Museum, located in a disused churchyard in East Ham.

I was introduced to many interesting insects that summer, including Roesel's bush cricket Metrioptera roeseli. At that time it used to be found uniquely on the inland side of saltmarshes, and in coastal regions around estuaries, with the Thames basin being one of its key areas. Since 1985 it has become increasingly common in southeast England, as well as spreading further north and west, in response to climate change. Large numbers have settled in areas of urban wasteland, especially near railways. It caught up with me in Peterborough sometime in the 1990s and is now one of the more frequent species of Orthopteran in the area, especially along the river valley.

For the past few weeks I've been listening to the song of several colonies along my local riverside walk, but they are very elusive, hiding amongst the damp tall grasses that they favour. This morning the early sunshine lured some of them out to bask, but they were still a bit cool and so allowed me to approach closely and get some decent shots. This magnificent individual is a female. She has a large saw-like ovipositor which is used to cut into grass stems where she lays her eggs. Normally the U-shaped mark behind the head is a creamy colour, but greenish varieties are known, and this seemed to be the predominant colouration in our local population.