Bug Wiki
Bug Wiki / All bugs / Grasshoppers and crickets
Sticker of Great green bush-cricket
Bug card No. 0655 of 1,500

Great green bush-cricket

Tettigonia viridissima
Eats: Other bugs and small animalsGrasshoppers and cricketsGardens and meadows6 legs

The great green bush-cricket is a big, bright green insect with super long feelers. You can often hear it singing in the evening and at night from bushes and trees. Unlike a grasshopper, it is a hunter that eats other insects.

Lives in
Most of Europe, Asia, the Near East and North Africa, in meadows, bushes and gardens
Length
2.8 to 4.2 cm (1.1 to 1.7 in)
Top speed
about 4.3 km/h (2.7 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Can bite or sting
It can give a painful bite if you hold it in your hand, but it is not dangerous. Just watch it instead.
What does it eat?
It hunts flies, caterpillars and insect larvae in bushes and trees.
For real!Photo of Great green bush-cricket
Picture by Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Great green bush-cricket about 4.2 cm long (1.7 in)A toy building brick about 3.2 cm (1.3 in)A crayon about 9 cm (3.5 in)A banana about 18 cm (7.1 in)
as long as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould run across a dinner table in 0.8 secondsmoves 28 times its own body length every second

How big is Great green bush-cricket compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Its feelers can be up to three times as long as its body.

2

The male sings by rubbing his wings together, and he keeps singing late into the night.

3

The female has a long, slightly curved tube at the end of her body for laying eggs. It is not a stinger.

4

It can fly, but it would rather walk and jump through bushes and trees.

5

It can live in mountains up to 1,800 metres high.

you asked

Most asked questions about Great green bush-cricket

?Does the great green bush-cricket bite?

Yes, it can bite painfully if you hold it in your fist, but it is not aggressive and not dangerous.

?What is the difference between a bush-cricket and a grasshopper?

A bush-cricket has very long feelers and often eats insects. A grasshopper has short feelers and eats plants.

?How big is a great green bush-cricket?

Males are about 3 to 3.5 centimetres long, and females up to about 4 centimetres.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Tettigonia viridissima
Group
Grasshoppers and crickets
Family
Tettigoniidae
Classification
Insecta > Orthoptera > Tettigoniidae
Lives on
Europe, Asia, Africa

Where the facts come from

  1. Tettigonia viridissima (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 Didier Descouens. CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same 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.

More from the same group: Grasshoppers and crickets

Desert locustGrasshoppers and cricketsHouse cricketGrasshoppers and cricketsParktown prawnGrasshoppers and cricketsEastern lubber grasshopperGrasshoppers and cricketsAustralian plague locustGrasshoppers and cricketsMormon cricketGrasshoppers and crickets

Also at home here: Gardens and meadows

Silverleaf whiteflyTrue bugs and cicadasGatekeeper butterflyButterfliesSt Mark's flyFlies and mosquitoesScarce swallowtailButterfliesPrivet hawk-mothMothsTwo-spot ladybirdLadybirds