Roesel's Bush-cricket

Now a common insect of late summer in Cambridgeshire, Roesel's Bush-cricket is quite distinctive and has one of the loudest songs of any British orthopteran. It is usually dark brown and yellow, but is sometimes tinged green or rarely completely green. There's a broad pale margin all the way around the sides of the pronotum, usually cream but occasionally greenish, as in this magnificent female who has a sickle shaped ovipositor that she uses to cut open plant stems (usually grasses) and lay the egg pods within. 

Roesel’s bush-cricket is native to the United Kingdom but used to be found uniquely on the inland side of saltmarshes, and in coastal regions around estuaries on the North Sea coast. ISince the mid-1980's it has become increasingly common in southeast England, as well as spreading further north and west. Large numbers have settled in areas of urban wasteland, especially near railways, where there is an abundance of the tall, rank grassland that it prefers.

I was lucky to fit in her photoshoot in the morning, before the rain arrived, as it continued for the rest of the day. We spent the afternoon with Molly, who was thankfully much better than on Friday, and is managing to get around again. I took freshly baked scones, strawberry jam and clotted cream, which she devoured with all the intensity and  enjoyment of a small child!