Short-winged Cone-head - Conocephalus dorsalis

Length 11-18 mm. Small, green bush cricket with a brown stripe along the pronotum and brown wings. Unlike the Long-winged Conehead, this species usually has wings that do not reach the end of the body. However there is a macropterous form (f. burri) with both pairs of wings fully developed, which is mainly found in hot summers.

Two distinct habitats: coastal saltmarshes and sand dunes, particularly associated with maritime rushes and grasses; inland on lowland bogs, fens, reedbeds, river floodplains and by lakes and pools.

Nymphs emerge in May and June. Adults present from July and August until mid-October.

Omnivorous, but feeds mainly on seed heads, buds and flowers of grasses, rushes and sedges.

Mainly found in southern England and a few coastal location further north.

Local and uncommon.

VC55 (Leicestershire and Rutland) is on the edge of the range for this species although it may well be spreading further north. It arrived in Rutland in 2007, just outside Hambleton village, at a site on Rutland Water.