The Bushcricket is the biggest German grasshopper. It cannot fly and because of its fat belly it has difficulties to cross roads quickly. The male bushcrickets attract their mates by singing from long blades of grass. Like many other species the Bushcricket population has declined because of the intensification of land use (early mowing, less landscape structures) and because of the fragmentation of the landscape by road-building. In Thuringia it was believed to be extinct until it was found in the Green Belt area of the Grabfeld region.
Images: 1,3,4 Karin Kowol, 2 Melanie Kreutz