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THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Decticus albifrons in Chelmsford
By R. H. Allen
I should like to record that an adult female of the bush cricket Decticus
albifrons was found in Chelmsford, alive and well, on 7th August 1975.
The specimen was found by Mr David Welsman in E. Block of the
Marconi Company Ltd., Writtle Road, Chelmsford, Essex and handed in
to the Zoology Department at the Writtle Agricultural College where it
was subsequently identified by Dr A. Warne of the Nature Conservancy
Council.
Apparently this bush cricket is normally found in the Mediterranean
region where it inhabits hot, dry, scrubby grassland. How it came to be in
Chelmsford is something of a mystery.