This champion of the woodland long-jump is a lot quieter than its other cricket cousins. The oak bush-cricket lives, feeds and breeds in trees and woodland.
Common name(s): oak bush cricket
Scientific name: Meconema thalassinum
Family: Tettigoniidae (bush crickets)
Habitat: ancient woodland, grassland
Predators: amphibians, birds, reptiles
Origin: native
The oak bush-cricket is lime green in colour, with large antenna and a yellow-orange stripe along its back. Its wings are medium in length and the females have a long ovipositor (egg-laying tube) while the males have a curved cerci (a pair of antenna-like appendages).
Length: 1.5 centimetres
Unlike other bush-crickets, the oak bush-cricket is predominantly carnivorous, feeding on a variety of smaller invertebrates such as caterpillars and other larvae.
Credit: Larry Doherty / Alamy Stock Photo
During the mating season, males use their hind legs to drum on leaves to attract females. This sound is almost imperceptible to humans.
Female oak bush-crickets lay their eggs individually in the bark of trees, mosses or lichens. Nymphs (pictured) usually emerge in late spring, passing through five stages of moulting before they reach maturity in July or August.
Unlike other crickets, the oak bush-cricket does not rub its legs or wings together to ‘sing’.
They are common in South Wales and southern and central England, but can be found as far north as Yorkshire and the Lake District. The oak bush-cricket is usually found in warm ancient woodland, parklands and hedgerows from June to November. It can often be hard to spot as it is well-camouflaged and spends most of its time hidden in the canopy of mature trees.
This cricket is entirely arboreal, meaning it lives exclusively in trees.
Bush-crickets are attracted to lights at night so you might spot one in a moth trap! Look out for them on leaves with a careful eye; they’re very well camouflaged.
The oak bush-cricket is not currently thought to be under threat.
