If you walk through any area of grass here at the reserve (and further afield) you’ll probably notice your steps trigger a flurry of hopping insects to move out of your way. Like dolphins surfing in front of a boat, this bow wave of grasshoppers and crickets always makes me want to stop and take a closer look and I finally managed to hunt down a few more of our hopping friends to show you this week. It’s been a good test of identification skills (I sought some expert advice on a couple, you’ll see why below).
I mentioned in a previous blog that I had heard field grasshoppers out near the workshop and I was keen to get a photo – and here it is!
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – field grasshopper
I’ve included some helpful distinguishing features within the photo. You'd have thought that, having just identified this one, I would have had no trouble with the next but the mottled complexion confused me somewhat. Turns out though that it’s not a mottled grasshopper (which should of course have clubbed antennae....) but rather a mottled form of the field grasshopper. The red/orange abdomen tip tells us this one is a male:
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – another field grasshopper, mottled form
Even more confusing is the next one. The nearly straight sides of the pronotum suggest it's either a meadow or lesser marsh grasshopper, however the wings of both usually fall just short of the abdomen tip which is not the case for this specimen. However, I’m reliably informed this is a (new word alert).... macropterous (long-winged) form of the meadow grasshopper:
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – macropterous meadow grasshopper
I’m sure over time it will get easier to identify them! As luck would have it, we were fortunate enough to have a lesser marsh grasshopper appear on our truck this morning during our work party break (we were pulling common ragwort again – thanks to everyone who came along!) The distinguishing features have again been highlighted, so you’ll know one when you see it next time!
Photo credit: Ali Blaney – lesser marsh grasshopper
Hopefully this will inspire you to look out for the grasshoppers and crickets near you - let me know if you spot any!
Staying with the smaller wildlife here at the reserve, we’ve also started hunting for marsh carpet moth larvae in our patches of common meadow rue. I’ll go into more detail about this next week when we have a final total but it involves delving deep into the vegetation and getting up close and personal to every common meadow rue plant we can find. The larvae are very small and well camouflaged at the best of times but this year they seem to be quite variable – some are tiny and barely visible while others are a bit chunkier. Anyway, I’ll leave you with that tantalising description, you’ll have to tune in next week to find out more!