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(Meconema thalassinum)
Crickets & grasshoppers
© Roger Key
Oak bush-cricket (Meconema thalassinum)
Lime green with a pale yellow stripe along the back. The females have a long ovipositor (egg-laying tube).
Found in trees, hedgrerows and shrubs
Nymphs can be seen from June and adults appear in July to the autumn months
An arboreal species and the only largely carnivorous bush-cricket that eats other small invertebrates. Females lay their eggs in bark, mosses and lichens.
The oak bush-cricket does not 'sing' like many other crickets but uses its legs to drum on leaves and branches instead.
The Midlands, Wales and southern England
The common ladybird has aposematic colouring, the bright red warns predators that it tastes bitter.
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