Grasshoppers, crickets and grasshoppers are regular visitors to our meadows, but many people confuse them. Can they be dangerous for us? How to tell them apart? Find out what's squeaking in the grass.
How to distinguish a grasshopper, a grasshopper and a cricket? Contrary to appearances, it is very easy. Each of them looks completely different - they have different colors and dimensions. It is worth getting to know them better to know which of them can bite a person.
Pasikonik
Pasikonik ( Tettigoniidae ) is the largest of the three - measures from4to even10 cm (together with wings) - and has a beautiful lush green coloration. Thanks to this, it is not easy to spot him in the grass. He is also very mobile - he flies quite well and is very lively.
Grasshoppers arepredators- adults mainly feed on smaller insects (flies, caterpillars and butterflies). Big eyes, strong legs, long antennae and a well-developedmouthpiece of the biting typemake them efficient hunters. And that's whywe shouldn't take the grasshopper on our hands , because it can gnaw our skin painfully! So let's admire these beautiful insects, but from a distance.
On warm August afternoons and nights you can hear sounds made by grasshoppers pleasing to the ear. This is possible thanks to the stridulatory organs that these insects possess. Rubbing them causes the characteristicchirping , which is to lure the females.
Grasshoppers can be found on meadows all over Poland fromJuly to October . If we see this insect in our garden, remember that it is useful because it eats pests.
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Grasshopper
Grasshopperis the colloquial name ofjumping locustof the genusChorthippus . In fact, this conventional name covers many different species of insects, including common horse, dark horse, mustache horse, brown horse and a warmth.
In terms of body structure, grasshoppers are similar to grasshoppers, but they are smaller than them (some species) and do not have the samebeautiful colors - usually they come in differentshades of brown .
Grasshoppers have long and strong hind legs that allow them to go farto jump . Like grasshoppers, they rub their legs against their wings, resulting in the characteristicsounds . Grasshoppers mostly feed on grass, grain and leaves - some species can do a lot of damage to crops.
Interestingly, grasshoppers often fall prey to grasshoppers. For humans, these insects are completelyharmless .
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Field cricket
Field crickets( Gryllus campestris ) are probably known to everyone, but hardly anyone knows what they actually look like. They are very often confused with grasshoppers and grasshoppers. They can be found in dry meadows, wastelands and forest crops, but they are difficult to observe because they liveburied in the ground.Their burrows are as deep as40 cm- they only lean out of them for the evening concerts, they are very skittish.
Compared to grasshoppers, they are much smaller (approx.2.5 cm ) and have a dark color (usually tarryblack). They are very inconspicuous in appearance and look a bit like beetles. They have large heads, small eyes on them, very long antennae anda powerful mouthpieceof the biting type. They mainly eat plants: grass and herbs, but they also eat small insects. They can't fly, but are verybouncy .
Due to their strong mandibles, crickets canbite a personin self-defense, but these are extremely rare cases as these insects usually avoid humans by hiding underground.
Their loud chirping in the meadows can be heard until the end ofJune(interestingly, its intensity depends on the age of the male). They also owe them to their stridulatory organs.
Cricket can be found in Polish fields and meadows fromMay to the end of July.Importantly, these insects are protected in our country because they are in danger of becoming extinct.
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