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Sticker of Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket
Bug card No. 1268 of 4,939

Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket

Dinarippiger discoidalis
Name means: “saddle bearer from the Dinara mountains”

The Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket is a chunky bush-cricket with a bright red patch on the back of its head. Its back is shaped like a little saddle. It lives on dry, rocky meadows in the mountains near the Adriatic Sea.

Lives in
The Dinaric mountains, from northeastern Italy and Slovenia to Croatia and Albania
Top speed
about 3 km/h (1.9 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. Watch it on the plants and let it be.
What does it eat?
It climbs tall flowers and bushes, where it nibbles plants and sometimes small insects.
For real!Photo of Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket
Picture by Petr Kouba. CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its colour changes a lot from one to another. Some are green and some are brownish.

2

The male sings, but much of his song is so high-pitched that people cannot hear it.

3

Its babies appear at the end of April, and the grown-ups are busiest in July and August.

4

It lives from the seashore up to about 1700 metres high in the mountains.

5

In 2023 scientists gave it its own group, and it is the only member of that group.

you asked

Most asked questions about Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket

?Where does the Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket live?

In the dry, rocky Dinaric mountains, from Italy and Slovenia to Croatia and Albania.

?Why is it called a saddle bush-cricket?

The shield on its back is shaped like a horse's saddle.

?Is the Dalmatian saddle bush-cricket dangerous?

No. It is a harmless bush-cricket.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Dinarippiger discoidalis
Named by
Fieber, 1853
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Tettigoniidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
Lives on
Europe

Where the facts come from

  1. Dinarippiger (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by Petr Kouba. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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More from the same group: Grasshoppers and crickets

Also at home here: Deserts and dry places

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