Find out more about recording Kent's grasshoppers, bush-crickets, crickets and groundhoppers.
Grasshoppers, crickets, bush-crickets and ground-hoppers form the order of insects known as the Orthoptera. They are a good group for the non-entomologist to study and record, as they are large, active and relatively easy to identify. And, because the males of most species sing, they can often be identified and recorded even when hidden.
The 25 species which are established in Kent and Medway are listed below, with links to pages with more detailed information, including distribution maps. Some of these species, such as the Tree Cricket, are recent arrivals, and more species are likely to become established over the coming years. For example, the Blue-winged Grasshopper Oedipoda caerulescens was recorded in Deal in 2020, and there were a number of records from the Folkestone area, in the vicinity of the Eurotunnel terminal, in 2025. The Blue-winged Sand Grasshopper Sphingonotus caerulans was recorded, again from near Folkestone in 2024; and what appears to be the first outdoor record of Southern Field Cricket Gryllus bimaculatus was made at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory in 2025.
Send your records of grasshoppers, bush-crickets, crickets or ground-hoppers to .
And why not join our Orthoptera Facebook Group here?
The species
Family Tettigoniidae
Sickle-bearing Bush-cricket Phaneroptera falcata
Speckled Bush-cricket Leptophyes punctatissima
Oak Bush-cricket Meconema thalassinum
Southern Oak Bush-cricket Meconema meridionale
Long-winged Conehead Conocephalus fuscus (previously Conocephalus discolor)
Short-winged Conehead Conocephalus dorsalis
Large Conehead Ruspolia nitidula
Great Green Bush-cricket Tettigonia viridissima
Wart-biter Decticus verrucivorus
Grey Bush-cricket Platycleis albopunctata
Roesel's Bush-cricket Roeseliana roeselii (previously Metrioptera roeselii)
Dark Bush-cricket Pholidoptera griseoaptera
Family Gryllidae
Tree-cricket Oecanthus pellucens
House-cricket Acheta domesticus
Family Tetrigidae
Cepero's Groundhopper Tetrix ceperoi
Slender Groundhopper Tetrix subulata
Common Groundhopper Tetrix undulata
Family Acrididae
Woodland Grasshopper Omocestus rufipes
Common Green Grasshopper Omocestus viridulus
Field Grasshopper Chorthippus brunneus
Meadow Grasshopper Chorthippus parallelus
Lesser Marsh Grasshopper Chorthippus albomarginatus
Mottled Grasshopper Myrmeleotettix maculatus
Stripe-winged Grasshopper Stenobothrus lineatus
Rufous Grasshopper Gomphocerippus rufus
In addition to these regularly recorded species, there are historic records for a few other species, including Greenhouse Camel-cricket Tachycines asynamorus (which was recorded from a greenhouse in a Canterbury Nursery in 1962), and Bog Bush-cricket Metrioptera brachyptera from near Dover in the 19th Century. There have been very occasional records of Mole-cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, which may be animals brought in with imported plants, and Egyptian Grasshopper Anacridium aegyptium which certainly has come in with nursery material on at least one occasion.
Identifying Orthoptera
You can download a sheet describing six common species 
here1.77 MB03/01/2013, 14:53.
Publications
Due out February 2026: Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Allies of Great Britain and Ireland by Peter Sutton and Björn Beckmann, with illustrations by Richard Lewington, ISBN 9781472976796. Published by Bloomsbury Books. This will undoubtedly be the key work to have for some years to come. It can currently be pre-ordered from here.
A recent publication is Grasshoppers of Britain and Western Europe by Eric Sardet, Christian Roesti and Yoan Braud, ISBN 9781472954862. This is an identification guide only, but beautifully illustrated with photographs, and includes a CD of the songs of all the species included.
The Guide to British Grasshoppers and Allied Insects, ISBN 9781851538645, is an excellent, 8-page Field Studies Council leaflet which covers fifty species of grasshoppers, crickets, bush crickets, ground hoppers, cockroaches, earwigs and stick insects, and includes a key.
A larger work, covering identification, habitat, behaviour and much more is The Grasshoppers and Allied Insects of Great Britain and Ireland, by JA Marshall, ECM Haes and D Ovenden, ISBN 0946589364. Although this is long out of print and is slightly dated by recent changes in Britain's Orthopteran fauna, it is well worth having and second-hand copies are available.
Also out of print is the New Naturalist volume, Grasshoppers and Crickets, by Ted Benton, which is an excellent and very detailed work, with a key and full descriptions of each species.
County atlases include The Grasshoppers and Crickets of Surrey by David W Baldock, ISBN 0952606542, is an excellent county atlas which lots of photos and useful information, and The Grasshoppers of Essex by Tim Gardiner and Ted Benton, which has been published by Essex Wildlife Trust and can be ordered from here.
Other equipment
A simple bat detector is a very useful tool to listen for grasshoppers and bush-crickets, as many calls are high-pitched – even younger people will find it useful, and those over 40 or so who find it hard to hear higher frequencies (this includes the author!) may find it essential.
Please send your records of grasshoppers, bush-crickets, crickets or ground-hoppers to .
For lots more information on the UK's Orthoptera, go to the Orthoptera Recording Scheme website.