Decticus verrucivorus
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The wart-biter (Decticus verrucivorus) is a bush-cricket in the family Tettigoniidae. Its common and scientific names derive from the eighteenth-century Swedish practice of allowing the crickets to nibble at warts to remove them.
Adult wart-biters are 31–37 millimetres (1.2–1.5 in), with females being significantly larger than males. They are typically dark green in colour, and shiny, always with at least some dark brown mottling or blotches on the pronotum and wings; a largely dark brown morphotype also occurs, though still mottled with some green. The female has a 20 mm long and slightly upcurved ovipositor. Their colour acts as effective camouflage in grassy surroundings.
The wart-biter has a song consisting of a rapidly repeated series of short bursts of clicks starting slowly and speeding up, sometimes lasting for several minutes; it only sings in sunny weather. Wart-biters normally move around by walking; they rarely fly, except when frightened. Most can only fly 3 to 4 metres (10 to 13 ft) at a time.
The Orthoptera Species File lists: D. verrucivorus assiduus Ingrisch, Willemse & Heller, 1992 D. verrucivorus brevipennis Götz, 1970 D. verrucivorus... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 2 | Ecrins National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 3 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Aigüestortes National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 5 | Triglav National Park | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | |
| 6 | Kiskunság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 7 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Hohe Tauern National Park | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 9 | Biebrza National Park | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 10 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 11 | Tatra National Park | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 12 | Fertő-Hanság National Park | 🇭🇺 Hungary | |
| 13 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 14 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Wart-Biter sighting in Bucharest on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 303rd most-seen of the 361 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Wart-Biter in Bucharest on a given day, against under 5% in July to May, the lowest months. That is one of Bucharest's wettest months, with about 80 mm of rain against 35 mm in February.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Wart-Biter sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 8
Of the 8 cities where we can rate Wart-Biter sightings, Bucharest ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Budapest (Hungary, about 10%), Stockholm (Sweden, under 5%) and Vienna (Austria, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wart-Biter is recorded against all the insects logged in Bucharest (5 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
