About the Wood Cricket
Nemobius sylvestris, the wood cricket, is a flightless species of cricket in the family Trigonidiidae. It is native to Western Europe and North Africa but uncommon in Britain. This cricket is a small, dark brown, ground-dwelling, grasshopper-like insect with long, thread-like antennae. It grows to about 1 cm (0.4 in). Neither males nor females have hind wings; in males the fore-wings extend half way along the abdomen, while in females, the fore-wings are reduced to rounded stubs. Females also have a long ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen.
The wood cricket is native to Europe and North Africa. Its range includes Western, Central and Southern Europe, Corsica, Algeria and Morocco. The natural habitat of this species is forest edges and woodland clearings, where it is associated with oak, beech, hazel and holly trees and with bracken. It thrives among the leaf litter in warm, sunny spots. It is uncommon in Britain, with three separate populations in the New Forest, the Isle of Wight and southern Devon. In 2001, following the clearance of coniferous woodland and rhododendron from a site near Offwell in eastern Devon, a new population appeared... Wikipedia →