Key Grasshopper and Cricket Sites in Essex
Despite the relatively high level of development in the County, there remain several large
areas of semi-natural habitat which support ten or more species of Orthoptera. These
are sufficiently important sites to list individually and comment upon. A few other areas,
much smaller in size, also support a variety of Orthoptera and these are listed following
the key sites.
The Roman River Valley - Twelve species
The Roman River rises just north of Marks Tey, close to the village of Great Tey, and
flows in a south easterly direction for some fifteen miles south of Colchester until it
reaches the River Colne at Rowhedge; opposite the village of Wivenhoe. For the
purposes of this habitat assessment, we are concerned only with that part of the valley
south of the Al 2 road close to the village of Copford and eastwards to Rowhedge.
Within the valley there are many areas of high conservation value. In particular there are
two woodland Sites of Special Scientific Interest - Friday and Donyland Woods, where
examples of ancient and secondary woodland occur together. There is an extensive
reedbed to the south of Donyland Wood. The freshwater marsh at Kingsford Bridge, the
salt and brackish marsh at the eastern end of the valley, together with other woodland,
scrub, grassland sites and older, abandoned gravel pits are all examples of habitats rich
in nature conservation value.
The bush crickets Pholidoptera griseoaptera and Leptophyes punctatissima are common
throughout the valley, particularly along hedgerows and in areas of scrub, whilst
Meconema thalassinum probably inhabits all of the woodland within the valley.
Metrioptera roeselii is present in tall grassland and is found most commonly in maritime
areas close to where the Roman River flows into the River Colne. Conocephalus dorsalis
also inhabits this area and has been found at an inland site at Malting Green where it
inhabits reeds on a small pond. It is also present in the Donyland reedbed. The sixth and
final bush cricket to be found is Tettigonia viridissima which exists in a thriving colony at
Rowhedge Pits in a typically rough, scrubby, grassy area.
Of the grasshoppers, Chorthippus brunneus and Chorthippus parallelus are common
virtually everywhere in the valley, whilst Chorthippus albomarginatus is found on the salt
marsh close to Rowhedge and on an inland site close to Friday Wood on thin, gravel soils.
It is here also that the locally rare Myrmeleotettix maculatus is found; the insect always
preferring thin, bare, heathy soils. This small area supports at least eight species of
Orthoptera within a few hundred yards; probably making it the richest single area in the
County for these insects.
The groundhopper Tetrix undulata has been found at Rowhedge Pits whilst another
groundhopper Tetrix subulata may be found at the edge of ponds in Gravel Pit Wood
towards the western end of the valley.
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