This year in Latvia and in other places of the world the heat and drought has brought also the majority of forest fires. Even though they seem cruel and devastating from the viewpoint of a human, they actually create a place and conditions to create a new life.
Mārtiņš Kalniņš, the senior environmental expert of JSC “Latvijas valsts meži”, after inspecting one of the burned forest sites, has found evidence that no place in nature is left unused. Picture of female Upland Green Bush-cricket (Tettigonia cantans), which was preparing to lay eggs, but then disturbed she rushed to climb on a burned tree trunk, so in a case of danger she could jump further off to fly away.
Usually the Upland Green Bush-crickets are wide spread in Europe, Near East and North Africa. Females of this species can reach a height of 3.7 centimetres and are larger than males. Females can be easily distinguished by their sword-like ovipositor – it can be up to 2.5 cm long and helps to lay eggs up to 3 cm deep in soil.
These are the grasshoppers that are usually used in children’s books as the scrapers and violinists, because there are known for a loud chirping. At the second part of summer at afternoons or on evenings, when going to the nearest meadow, you will definitely hear the special song of this insect. The Upland Green Bush-crickets also live in cities, where males climb trees to “play music” so that their music could be heard as far as possible.