Meadow grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus
Meadow grasshopper, Chorthippus parallelus © Hans Hillewaert, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
The meadow grasshopper is usually green or brown, but sometimes the females are an eye-catching pink colour.
It looks similar to the field grasshopper but without the hairs underneath its thorax (the middle body region). Also, its song is very different, sounding a bit like a sewing machine in short bursts of up to 3 seconds.
This species prefers damper pastures and meadows and is the most common and widespread grasshopper in England, Wales and Scotland. It is usually flightless.
Discover more about the meadow cricket in this species fact file
