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Sticker of Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket
Bug card No. 4037 of 4,939

Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket

Barbitistes obtusus
Eats: A bit of everythingGrasshoppers and cricketsForests and woods6 legs

The southern saw-tailed bush-cricket is a chubby little bush-cricket from the mountains. It can be grey, brown, olive green or even turquoise, with a reddish head. Two yellow stripes with red edges run back from its eyes like racing stripes.

Lives in
The southern Alps in France, Italy and Switzerland, in light woods and bushes
Length
1.8 to 2.1 cm (0.71 to 0.83 in)
Top speed
about 3.1 km/h (1.9 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless. It does not sting and is gentle with people.
What does it eat?
It eats plants and also small creatures. It is often found sitting on blackberry leaves.
For real!Photo of Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket
Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket about 2.1 cm long (0.83 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)
as long as 4 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 1.2 secondsmoves 41 times its own body length every second

How big is Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

1

It lives in the mountains, as high up as 2000 metres.

2

Its feelers are about as long as its body and have small bright rings on them.

3

Its song is made of short sounds, from 3 to 10 times a minute. When it is warmer, it sings faster.

4

It looks almost exactly like a close cousin. Scientists tell them apart by the curvy S-shaped tail tips of the males.

you asked

Most asked questions about Southern saw-tailed bush-cricket

?How big is the southern saw-tailed bush-cricket?

It is about 18 to 21 millimetres long, about the length of a paper clip.

?What does the southern saw-tailed bush-cricket eat?

Plants and small creatures. You can often find it on blackberry leaves.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Barbitistes obtusus
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Tettigoniidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
Lives on
Europe
Also known as
Alpine saw bush-cricket

Where the facts come from

  1. Barbitistes obtusus (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 Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, 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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