Introduction
I have often been asked 'why grasshoppers and crickets?'. There are several reasons for
my fascination with this group of insects, which began over twenty years ago.
Numerically they are a very small group within the British Isles. Even if you include their
related families the Cockroaches, Earwigs and Stick Insects, their numbers total only
fifty-two, of which fourteen are aliens. This represents a very manageable group of
insects to study and become acquainted with, particularly for the amateur naturalist.
The Orthoptera (grasshoppers, groundhoppers and crickets) are, with few exceptions,
relatively large and therefore easy to observe, and most of them have a fascinating song,
or "stridulation", as it as called, enabling the observer to identify the species readily. An
important consideration for me is that it is not necessary to collect and kill these insects
in order to effect their identification. Most species can be identified in their habitat,
particularly the adults, and some bush cricket nymphs are readily identifiable in their early
instars, notably Speckled and Dark Bush. Where further examination is necessary to
permit positive identification, insects can be captured in a tube or bottle and released
later.
The only items of equipment necessary in the field are a beating tray (only really useful to
locate Oak Bush cricket), a sweep net, a few small glass tubes and a 10x or 20x hand
lens. My own experience suggests that the sweep net and beating tray can often be
dispensed with unless you are making a determined effort to record Oak Bush cricket or
grasshoppers and crickets in their early instars. A lot of useful recording can take place
relatively free of "baggage" with just a hand lens and a few tubes. The insects, with
practice, are reasonably easy to tempt into tubes and once the stridulation patterns of
the various species have been learned, they provide further clues for identification and
recording. There are one or two bat detectors now on the market that can be adapted to
pick up the frequencies of our Orthoptera, and are of immense value in locating these
insects once the various stridulations have been mastered. Some species are very
difficult to detect even with good hearing and, with increasing age, most of our
orthopteroids are beyond the range of most peoples' hearing, making the use of these
instruments of prime value.
Historically, the grasshoppers and crickets have received scant attention from the
naturalists; particularly in the Victorian era when so many other, and often, to my mind,
more obscure groups of insects were observed and collected. In recent years however,
with the arrival of David Ragge's book "Grasshoppers. Crickets and Cockroaches of the
British Isles" (1965), and more recently, the excellent publication from E.C.M. Haes and
Judith A. Marshall, 'Grasshoppers and Allied Insects of Great Britain and Ireland" (1988),
they have become a popular subject for study.
Many of the grasshoppers and crickets require special environmental conditions, making
them indicators of prime habitat, and most of them are at the extreme edge of their
range in Britain, making observations on their distribution of great importance. Local
publications showing the distribution of these insects, often on a County basis, are now
emerging. Many of these are by amateur naturalists who with limited time and resources,
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