Leptophyes punctatissima. (Bosc, 1792) Common Speckled Bush-cricket.
Length 9 to 18mm
Family: Tettigoniidae. Subfamily: Phaneropterinae. Genus Leptophyes.
Season: Nymphs emerge from May, adults present from July into November.
Widespread and common over most of Europe, including the British Isles and to the far east, into Russia. It can also be found in the Mediterranean countries and as far south as Israel it has been recorded. The Speckled bush-cricket is also found in the Nearctic ecozone.
Habitat: Woodlands, various bushy grasslands, scrubland, hedgerows, parks and gardens. Prefers mainly dry shrubby places, to feed on a variety of shrubs and other similar vegetation.
The Speckled bush-cricket is a flightless species, having no hindwings, the male has small forewings and the female’s forewings are even smaller; their antennae are twice as long as their bodies. The female can be distinguished from the male as she has a large broadened upturned appendage at the rear, this being her ovipositor, used for laying her eggs into a plant stem or into tree bark, in late summer. The eggs will over winter, until the following spring.
The song noise of the male, (produced by rubbing the right wing onto the left wing, which has a tooth-like projection at the base of the wing) is very quiet and is no easily picked up by the human ear, unlike most other cricket species. The female responds with even a weaker call, this attracts the male to her.