The Speckled Bush-cricket is one of the commoner and more widely distributed bush-crickets occurring in Suffolk, yet it often goes unnoticed by observers on forays into the countryside. The following article, written to accompany E.Kirby's excellent photograph of a female, provides some clues to identifying and locating this attractive insect.
The 
adult bush-cricket is a small, rather plump-bodied insect, averaging c.15mm in length, with long, wispy antennae twice the length of the body. The whole body is an attractive pale green colouration with a brown stripe along the dorsal surface of the abdomen, more pronounced in the male. Close examination, particularly with a hand lens will reveal the whole body to be covered in a mass of minute dark spots, thus giving the species its English name.
This is one of three bush-crickets that are brachypterous, i.e. possessing short wings, the others being the Dark Bush-cricket and Short-winged Cone-head. Both sexes lack hindwings and have the forewings reduced to small rounded lobes, those of the female being shorter than the male. Not surprisingly, the species is completely flightless.
Like all bush-crickets, individuals can easily be sexed by the presence in the female of a long ovipositor. The female Speckled Bush-cricket has a distinctly different shaped ovipositor compared to other British bush-crickets, being flat, broad and distinctly upcurved. Most other bush-crickets possess long, sword-like ovipositors.
The rudimentary wings of adults render confusion unlikely with any of the other green bush-crickets occurring in this country, all of which are clearly fully winged. In common with the majority of bush-crickets, males sing by rubbing their forewings over each other. At the base of the left forewing there is a small tooth which is rubbed against the edge of the right wing to produce a sound. The song, or stridulation, of the Speckled Bush-cricket is a short, high-pitched chirp repeated regularly and is inaudible to most humans beyond a range of a few centimetres. Unlike other bush-crickets the female is able to produce a weak stridulation in response to the male who, upon hearing this, moves towards her.
The female uses her ovipositor to lay her eggs singly in bark crevices and plant stems in late summer and autumn. Having overwintered in the egg stage, nymphs begin emerging from mid-May onwards, although this might not occur until the spring of the following year. The newly emerged nymphs bear a close resemblance to young capsid bugs and large green aphids although a close examination will reveal the long antennae and dark body speckling. The nymphs develop through six body moults becoming mature during August.
Speckled Bush-crickets are easiest to find by eye when they are in their nymphal stages. From late May onwards they are usually easy to find, sunning themselves in the open on a variety of plants, especially brambles and nettles. They can be found, often in large numbers, in a wide variety of scrubby locations including disused railway lines, woodland rides, hedgerows, overgrown gardens and roadside verges to name a few. Having selected a likely spot to search for nymphs, it is best to begin by examining suitable looking nettles and brambles just above ground level. The green nymphs blend in remarkably well with the leaves on which they sit and a search may appear fruitless until one is suddenly spotted and then it becomes a case of 'getting your eye in'. The insect relies on its cryptic colouration for camouflage and is not prone to rapid movements so individuals are unlikely to be found scurrying over vegetation. An alternative method to searching by eye would be to use a sweep net in suitable looking spots.
As the nymphs mature towards adulthood they begin to isolate from one another and move higher and deeper into the vegetation making them harder to locate with a casual eye. In addition, the stridulation of the male is so faint that individuals are unlikely to be located aurally. Apart from diligent searching of suitable looking spots the best method for finding adults would be by gently beating brambles and other shrubs, particularly Hazel which appears to be a favourite for this species. Those naturalists armed with a bat detector are at a distinct advantage when searching for adults as the stridulation of the male can easily be heard with such an instrument, at a range of up to 30 metres. Males sing at a peak frequency of 40khz and the song is revealed as a short tick repeated regularly at intervals of four or five seconds.
Since 1990 the Speckled Bush-cricket has been recorded from 105 tetrads in Suffolk, which accounts for less than ten per cent of the total number in the county. Nevertheless it is a widespread species and records have been made from nearly all the 10km squares. Most sightings relate to casual records but diligent searching by number of individuals has shown that this is quite a common insect whose true status is only obscured by its unobtrusive nature. Records could be expected from most of the county with the possible exception of some of the reclaimed coastal areas and arable plains, but more intensive survey work is needed to ascertain this.
I would greatly welcome any records of this species, as indeed I would for any orthopteran - we still have along way to go before we can understand the true status and distribution of grasshoppers, bush-crickets and earwigs in Suffolk.
Stuart Ling
County Recorder : Orthoptera
email: lingsj_2000@yahoo.co.uk
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