The great green bush-cricket, also called great green grasshopper, is a striking and beautiful insect, not only because it is 40-54 mm long and bright green, but particularly for its unmistakable prolonged shrill buzzing call that carries for 100 m or more in still conditions.
The great green bush-cricket can fly very well and tends to be active in the late afternoon and continues singing late into the night. It feeds on a wide variety of herbage, but also other insects.
The great green bush-cricket is generally found in shrubby areas with rough, untouched herbage, with plenty of thistles, brambles and other coarse plants, but always in warm, generally south-facing locations.
Eggs are laid singly in soil, turf or other crevices in the ground where they overwinter. Bright green and green-eyed nymphs emerge in May and June, and these undergo seven or eight nymphal stages before reaching adulthood in late July.
Great green bush-crickets are still small at this time of the year. The ovipositor can be seen from the fifth nymphal stage; the wings appear in both genders from the sixth nymphal stage.