SCIENTIFIC NAME: TETTIGONIA VIRIDISSIMA
VERNACULAR NAME: GREAT GREEN BUSH-CRICKET

Fig 1
DESCRIPTION With a wingspan up to 70mm and an overall length of approximately 46mm this is Britain's biggest bush-cricket.  The overall colour is a lush green broken only by a longitudinal brown dorsal stripe.  The females long sword-like ovipositor looks ominous but is harmless.
BEHAVIOUR Produces a loud call from deep cover that carries for several hundred metres.  This sound is made long after dusk.
DISTRIBUTION Common in the south especially Dorset to Cornwall and S Wales.
HABITAT Mainly coastal with mature hedgerows, gardens, scrub and rough shrubby grassland the chosen sites. 
PERIOD May to Autumn.

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