''Tettigonia viridissima'', the great green bush-cricket, is a large species of bush-cricket belonging to the subfamily Tettigoniinae.

Distribution and habitat

This species can be encountered in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, in the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

, in the Near East, and in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

, especially in meadows, grasslands, prairies and occasionally in gardens at an elevation up to above sea level.

Description

The adult males grow up to long, while females reach .INPN
/ref> This insect is most often completely green (but there are specimens completely yellowish or with yellow legs), excluding a rust-colored band on top of the body. The organ of the

stridulation Stridulation is the act of producing sound by rubbing together certain body parts. This behavior is mostly associated with insects, but other animals are known to do this as well, such as a number of species of fish, snakes and spiders. The mech ...

of the males is generally brown. ''Tettigonia viridissima'' is distinguished by its very long and thin antennae, which can sometimes reach up to three times the length of the body, thus differentiating them from grasshoppers, which always carry short antennae. It could be confused with ''

Tettigonia cantans ''Tettigonia cantans'' is a species of bush crickets (or katydids) belonging to the family Tettigoniidae subfamily Tettigoniinae. Distribution ''Tettigonia cantans'' is present in most of Europe, in the eastern Palearctic realm, in Near East, an ...

'', whose wings are a centimeter shorter than the

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typica ...

, or ''

Tettigonia caudata ''Tettigonia caudata'' is a species of bush-crickets belonging to the family Tettigoniidae subfamily Tettigoniinae. It is found over most of Europe mainly in the East (it is absent from France and Spain).Fauna Europaea Fauna Europaea is a databa ...

'' whose hind

femur The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates wit ...

s bear conspicuous black spines. The morphology of both sexes is very similar, but the female has an egg-laying organ (ovipositor) that can reach a length of . It reaches the end of the elytra and is slightly curved downward.Michael Chinery, Insectes de France et d'Europe occidentale, Flammarion, 320 p. (), p. 50-51 The

larvae A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. T ...

are green and as the

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the fi ...

show on their back a thin brown longitudinal stripe. The ovipositor can be seen from the fifth stage; the wings appear in both genders from the sixth stage.

Biology

''Tettigonia viridissima'' is carnivorous and arboreal. Its diet is mostly composed of

flies Flies are insects of the Order (biology), order Diptera, the name being derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwing ...

, caterpillars and larvae. Unlike grasshoppers, it is essentially active in day and night, as testified by its endless crepuscular and nocturnal singing. The species can bite painfully but is not particularly aggressive. It is best to avoid holding the insect in the fist, as that almost guarantees a bite. They can fly, but they tend to avoid flying where possible. Most often they move "on foot" or jumps, which allow them to travel about in bushes and trees.

Gallery

File:Heuschrecke MG 6232.jpg, Males can be recognized by the absence of the ovipositor File:Tettigonia viridissima rule.jpg, Females can be recognized by the ovipositor File:Tettigonia virdissima nymph on Phleum pratense.jpg, Nymph on '' Phleum pratense'' File:Grande sauterelle verte - Portrait.jpg, Anatomy of the head File:Grande sauterelle verte Mandibules.jpg, Mandibles File:Bulle auditive Grande Sauterelle Verte.jpg, Hearing bubble on the forelimb File:Tettigonia viridissima singing male (Andreas Plank 2011-07-24).ogv, Stridulating green bush-crickets File:Cricket near St Mewan, Cornwall, UK.jpg, A male on a wall near

St Mewan St Mewan ( kw, Sen Mewen) is a civil parish and village in south Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is approximately one mile (1.6 km) west of St Austell. It is a small settlement, comprising the parish church, rectory, a sc ...

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlan ...

, UK.

References

External links

* *
Video of Tettigonia viridissima in a tree

Tettigonia viridissima

Green grasshopper eating a butterfly
{{Taxonbar, from=Q261181 Tettigoniinae Insects described in 1758 Articles containing video clips Orthoptera of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus