Pholidoptera Griseoaptera - The Dark Bush Cricket - Female, Male and stages of development.

Nature - Wild Life - Insect Life. The Dark Bush-Cricket is a flightless species of European bush-cricket; it is the type species of its genus with no subspecies. Can reach a body length of 11 to 21 mm (males) and 15 to 20 mm (females). The sickle-shaped and upward curved ovipositor of the females is 8 to 10 mm long, while the males have two short cerci. The antennae and the hind legs are long. One of the differences between crickets and grasshoppers, crickets have long antennae, grasshoppers have short ones.
The rounded brachypterous wings of the males are brown with light brown to ochre-coloured edges and are about 5 mm in length (about as long as the pronotum). The females are almost wingless or have half-round, grey-brown fore-wings that are 1–2 mm long. Long-winged (macropterous) forms are not recorded. This species can be found in Europe from northern Spain up to Crimea, Caucasus and the Near East. It is fairly common in Great Britain, but not recorded from Ireland. Adults are omnivorous, feeding primarily on small insects such as aphids and caterpillars, but eat also plants such as bramble (Rubus species), dandelion (Taraxacum species) and nettles (Urtica species). The stridulation is a brief and penetrating sound, repeatedly irregularly night and day.
Another difference between grasshoppers and crickets, grasshoppers feed only on vegetables, crickets are omnivores. In my video you can see various stages of development of this creature, from a size of 4 mm (only the body with legs, without antennae, as seen in black crickets with a white back) to the adult variant with a size of 20 mm just the body. The female and the male can be identified. Two specimens made a jump, disappearing in the foliage. From the spot, in height, directly vertically, I measured, this cricket without wings, jumped 35 cm.
The dark bush-cricket colonizes a variety of habitats, but avoids sandy soils and are accordingly rare in sandy areas. It is mainly present in forest edges or clearings, but can be found also in wasteland, parks and gardens, at an elevation of about 0–2,100 metres above sea level.
The females lay their eggs in the soil, in dead branches, in bark crevices and rotting wood. The eggs need high humidity. The larvae require two years for their full development, with seven larval stages. They feed exclusively on vegetables. Nymphs appear at the end of April of the third year, while the first adults appear in June.
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