Dark Bush-cricket

The basic body colouration may be grey brown, light brown, dark brown or even red-brown with a conspicuous yellow or yellow-green underside. The flanks and limbs are usually speckled darkly. In some lighter coloured specimens, females especially, a series of indistinct, darker, inverted V markings run down the middle of the abdomen, one per segment. The wings are very small in males and reduced to vestigial lobes in the female. The nymphs have a very characteristic dark-edged, yellow or golden line running the length of their bodies from the head to the tip of the abdomen, contrasting with the dark brown flanks. The female ovipositor is strongly curved upwards.Body length; both sexes 10mm to 20 mm (+) 10mm ovipositor. This species is essentially wingless.
Behaviour and life history
The Dark Bush-cricket is very active and spends most of the day in scrub and overgrown grassy areas from which it chirps incessantly throughout the day and well into dusk. It is an omnivorous species eating both leaves and other invertebrates. Males, when not sunbathing, are aggressive and defend their territories against intruding males. Females lay their eggs in late summer into rotting wood or bark crevices where they overwinter. Nymphs emerge in late April or May and reach maturity in July.