Below an umbrella

I saw it every day, these last weeks, well hidden below a maple leaf. It is Phaneroptera falcata, the sickle-bearing bush-cricket, a species of bush-cricket. Its elytra are of the same color and pattern than the leaf so you, and predators, can hardly see it with the exception of its red eyes.

Due to its small muscles, it does not jump a lot but can fly.  

Females lay down eggs inside leaves like those of Prunus spinosa (blackthorn, or sloe) which are very common here.

I found a juvenile of the same species in spring.
 

 

Phaneroptera falcata has been extending the northern limits of its range in mainland Europe in recent decades.  Vagrant adults are occasionally found in Britain, and a small, but apparently established, colony was discovered near Dungeness in Kent in 2015.

Singing at night

Around the Mediterranean Sea, cicadas are singing. We do have some that come from the Black Mountain southern slope, but the singers in the night here are field crickets (Gryllus campestris ).

 Female (with its ovipositor)

They belong to the Orthoptera order which includes the grasshoppers we can find here too. Crickets are vegetarian. The males make a burrow with a platform at the entrance from which they attract females with their courtship stridulation.

 

 

Males are territorial and defend their burrows fiercely. They are used in Asia and particularly in China for fighting.