Decticus verrucivorus
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
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 |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Wart-Biter sighting in Hohe Tauern National Park on a given day, based on 19 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 29th most-seen of the 165 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Wart-Biter in Hohe Tauern National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February to May, the lowest months. December has too few records to rate.
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.
8th of 14
Of the 14 parks where we can rate Wart-Biter sightings, Hohe Tauern National Park ranks 8th at about 20%. The best odds are in Mercantour National Park (France, about 50%), Ecrins National Park (France, about 40%) and Vanoise National Park (France, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Tettigoniidae
The closest relatives of the Wart-Biter that you can see in Hohe Tauern National Park (family Tettigoniidae, Katydids) are Alpine Dark Bush-Cricket (about 30%), Dark Bush-Cricket (about 10%) and Eastern Alpine Bush-Cricket (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Wart-Biter is recorded against all the insects logged in Hohe Tauern National Park (19 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
