Great Green Bush-cricket - Tettigonia viridissima

Scientific Name:  Tettigonia viridissima (Tettigoniidae).


English Name: Great Green Bush-cricket (Bush-cricket family).


French Name: La Grande Sauterelle verte (='Great Green Grasshopper').

5 Key Characters:

• the largest Orthoptera (grasshoppers and their relatives) you will see here (5 - 7 cm long from head to wing tips and excluding the long fine antennae).
• rarely flies although it has large wings.
• females have 2 cm slightly down curved bladelike ovipositor (just reaching the wing tips in length).
• 'sings' loudly and is most active in the evening.
• mostly carnivorous, they can deliver a painful bite if alarmed.
  

Lookalikes: Other green bush-crickets and coneheads, but none are as big.


Habitat: Trees, shrubs, rough vegetation.


Active Period: Adults are active July to October. They eat a variety of insect larvae including caterpillars and beetle grubs such as those of Colorado Beetle Leptinotarsa decemlineata and can provide significant control of pest species such as this.


Status: Widespread but in strong decline due to modern intensive agriculture and insecticides.

Photographed by Loire Valley Nature: