Crickets and
Grasshoppers belong to the order Orthoptera and
the current UK list contains around 30 species, including
several known migrants and accidentals. Nottinghamshire
currently has around 15 species on it's list, a list
which includes the Dark Bush Cricket. Yet this large
species was thought to have died out here, with no
Nottinghamshire records since last recorded along the Bingham Linear
Park in 2003.
But it was reported by Louise and Alastair Gordon
from field edges/ditches at Weston in the Trent Valley, where it had
apparently been present since at least 2011 and remains in that area,
being recorded in good numbers audibly in August 2022. It has since been
found (2022) at Kirton Wood (Brownley, N. and
Brownley, S.), so is obviously more widespread than thought,
probably along the Trent Valley.
In the south of the UK,
Dark Bush Cricket is common and we found them to be
numerous on Brambles growing on a former landfill site at
Dartford, Kent. |
