Hopper

It's funny what turns up on your patio.  Last week I was to be seen scuttling about taking pictures of the marks left behind by slugs and snails, today it was the turn of a rather attractive Grasshopper.

This little insect is a Common Green Grasshopper (Omocestus viridulus).  One of Britain's most common Grasshoppers (as the name suggests), it is rather variable in colour and can be anything from a vivid green, to a dull brown.  It's 'song' is usually the giveaway.  When heard among the tall grasses of the countryside, this grasshopper is the one which sounds like the loud and long ticking of a freewheeling bicycle.  Both males and females 'sing' by rubbing their hind legs against their wing-cases.  The males try to time their song so as not to 'overlap' with that of a female because he might not be heard if the two songs coincide.

Oh, The trials of life!  Who would have thought that a Grasshopper's life would be so fraught with difficulty?