Grasshoppers and Crickets

EDITORS

SARAH A. CORBET, SCD

PROF. RICHARD WEST, SCD, FRS, FGS

DAVID STREETER, MBE, FIBIOL

JIM FLEGG, OBE, FIHORT

PROF. JONATHAN SILVERTOWN

The aim of this series is to interest the general reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the enquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Editors’ Preface

Author’s Foreword and Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

2 Orthoptera: structure and function

3 Life histories

4 Introduction to mating systems and sexual selection

5 Calling, courting and competing: insect songsters

6 Courting, giving and guarding

Key to British Orthoptera

7 The British species, part 1: Ensifera

8 The British species, part 2: Caelifera

9 Ecology and conservation of the British species

DVD Commentary

References

List of Searchable Terms

Copyright

About the Publisher

Editors’ Preface

Following his earlier New Naturalist, Bumblebees, we are delighted that Ted Benton has shared his enthusiasm for another familiar and well-loved group of insects that contribute greatly to the sights and sounds of summer – grasshoppers and crickets. As well as dealing with identification, he considers the natural history of the British species and their conservation, and discusses their distribution, their polymorphisms and the timing of their life history stages in relation to the changing climate. He shows how studies of their bizarre behaviour contribute to our understanding of the evolution of reproductive strategies, and illustrates their songs and dances in the accompanying DVD, an innovation for this series. The fruit of many years of careful observation, photography, filming and recording, this book will surely bring many fresh converts to the study of Orthoptera.

Author’s Foreword and Acknowledgements

My semi-retirement from the ‘day job’ as professor of sociology at the University of Essex has given me more free time (but not so much as might be hoped!) to indulge in the delights of field natural history. As I explained in the foreword to my previous New Naturalist (Bumblebees, 2006), it took me longer than it should have to see the connections between my work as a sociologist and my passionate interest in natural history and wildlife conservation. In the bumblebee book the links were made in several ways, including a thoroughgoing treatment of the bees as social animals, and the use of some ideas from critical political economy, political sociology and planning law in thinking about the causes of bumblebee decline and prospects for reversing it. I hope that in this book, my background in philosophy and social science also gives a distinctive perspective that justifies its publication, even though the topic is so brilliantly covered by several other works.

Having observed the astonishing and puzzling antics of courting male rufous and mottled grasshoppers, I began to research the literature on mating systems, sexual selection and sexual conflict. The history of this topic engaged my sociological interests, as there are striking parallels between the emergence of these issues in the human social sciences and their resurgence in the life-sciences literature – both in the wake of ‘second-wave’ feminism. After quite a struggle, I managed to cut the treatment of these issues down to a mere three chapters (4 to 6), but echoes will be seen through the accounts of particular species, as well as in some of the video clips. As in the bumblebee book, I have tried to reflect on the relationships between shifting ways of conceptualising behaviour, the posing of questions for research, and the elusive activities of the insects themselves. A historical perspective on the topic often helps to bring out the always provisional character of our current ways of understanding nature, and the ways in which social and cultural processes play their part in shaping and focusing scientific practice.

Since very early in life, I have been aware of grasshoppers and their allies as abundant denizens of the wild places I inhabited as a ‘feral’ child in south Yorkshire. However, their coming to attention as topics for special study by an amateur naturalist required reliable, accessible literature. David Ragge’s wonderful Wayside and Woodland Grasshoppers, Crickets and Cockroaches of the British Isles (1965) provided this and much more – real inspiration! What finally consolidated the interest for me was helping Alan Wake to map the Orthoptera of Essex, for his excellent 1997 book on the topic. We traversed the lanes and byways of our much-maligned county on battered old push-bikes – and had more laughs than we deserved. By that time, Ragge’s great work had been complemented by another: Judith Marshall and E.C.M. Haes’s