Grasshoppers, Bush-crickets and Ground-hoppers (Orthoptera)

This group of insects is to be found all over the city but individual species are restricted to their particularly favoured habitats. Adults, with the exception of the Ground-hoppers (Tetrix sp.), are only to be seen only during the summer months during which they mate and lay their eggs. The eggs overwinter and nymphs emerge when the weather warms up the following year. Nymphs resemble the adults but have to shed (slough) their skins several times during their development to accommodate their growing bodies. In winged forms, the wings progressively develop over the larval stages and they only become fully formed in the adult stage.

The group is divided into three very distinct forms that can be easily separated:

Grasshoppers are typically ground dwellers of open sunny positions. They have short antennae (feelers) which are shorter than their body length and the females lack a long, prominent ovipositor which is found at the tip of the abdomen and is used for laying eggs. All the local species have a double set of wings which extend to the tip of the abdomen, or beyond, with the exception of the female Meadow Grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus, which is only half winged when adult.

Ground-hoppers generally resemble small drab-coloured grasshoppers but their thorax is extended backwards to the tip of the abdomen or beyond. They cannot fly.

Bush-crickets and Cone-heads aretypically found amongst tall grasses, scrub, bushes and trees and are seldom found on the ground. They have very long antennae that are much longer than their body length. Females are characterised by a prominent sword or scimitar shaped structure protruding from the tip pf the abdomen which is known as an ovipositor and is used to lay eggs. Some Bush-crickets have fully developed wings when adult and can fly whilst other species only have vestigial wings and are flightless.

11 species of orthopterans have been recorded from Plymouth, one of which, the Long-winged Cone-head (Conocephalus discolor), is nationally notable

The individual species accounts are straightforward. A double click on the thumbnails will blow them up into 15x12 cm images. The distribution maps show the outline of the Citys boundaries superimposed with a five kilometre grid Note that the grid in the map below is a ten kilometre grid. Records, in the species accounts, are represented by a red circle superimposed on the one kilometre grid from which the species has been recorded.