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Southern Oak Bush-cricket - Meconema meridionale
Adult 14 to 17 mm in length. A pale green bush-cricket with a creamy-yellow dorsal stripe and two reddish spots on top of the pro-thorax. The female has a long, slightly upturned ovipositor, while the male has long curved cerci. Both sexes have vestigial wings and are flightless. It is only readily separated from the Oak Bush-cricket as an adult, because the wings remain as tiny flaps. Even at this stage it could be overlooked as a large nymph of our commoner species.
An arboreal species found in oak woodland but also on other deciduous trees and on hedgerow shrubs.
Summer.
Carnivorous, arboreal and nocturnal, it is a predator of the Horse Chestnut Leaf Miner.
A recent British colonist, first recorded from Surrey and Berkshire in 2001, and already recorded as far north as Nottinghamshire by 2012. This follows a well-documented expansion from southern Europe over the past few decades.
Rare in Leicestershire and Rutland.
Leicestershire & Rutland Map
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Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015
UK Map
Species profile
- Common names
- Southern Oak Bush-cricket
- Species group:
- Grasshoppers & Crickets
- Kingdom:
- Animalia
- Order:
- Orthoptera
- Family:
- Meconematidae
- Records on NatureSpot:
- 13
- First record:
- 02/10/2016 (Pearce, Ray)
- Last record:
- 13/08/2023 (Lewis, Steven)
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