The wart-biter (
Decticus verrucivorus) is a large, dark green, ground-dwelling, omnivorous bush-cricket in the family Tettigoniidae. Its scientific name derives from an old Swedish practice of using the cricket to bite warts from the skin. Native to Europe, the wart-biter is found throughout much of the continent, the United Kingdom, and across temperate Asia to Eastern China, active in warm summery weather between May and September. It has a distinctive call of repeated clicking sounds. In the different stages of their life cycles wart-biter crickets require a mosaic of vegetation structures including bare ground, grass tufts, and flowering forbs. In Britain, environmental changes due to grazing and other destruction of grassland habitats, have significantly reduced numbers of
D. verrucivorus crickets to only four small natural populations in southern England. This species is considered one of Britain’s most endangered insects, protected under the Wildlife and Courntryside Act of 1981, and the subject of protection by the
UK biodiversity action plan. Consideration of its ecological needs is required to conserve this vulnerable and declining species and reintroduce new populations into restored habitats. (Cherrill and Brown 1990a, 1990b;
Pinchen;
Wikipedia 2011)
