Endangered cricket reintroduced in South East England

RARE: At one point there was only one colony of field crickets left in the UK. There are now five

Heathland is one of the country's most threatened habitats, but it supports a huge range of wildlife species. After several years of work by the RSPB to recreate heathland from commercial conifer plantations, two of its reserves were chosen as viable sites for field cricket releases.

Cricket creates its own sun lounger

The crickets, which were taken from two sites in West Sussex, were released last week at two RSPB reserves - Farnham Heath in Surrey and Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex - as part of a project funded by Natural England and supported by the Natural History Museum and the Zoological Society of London.

‘We are very excited to be part of this fascinating project to help bring an extremely rare insect species back from the brink,' said RSPB ecologist Dr Jane Sears. ‘It really proves the RSPB is about more than just birds.

‘The field cricket is unique in many ways. Before it can feed it needs to warm up so it can often be seen in the spring, sunbathing outside its burrow. It makes its own spoon-shaped sun lounger in short vegetation so it can soak up the rays and will move around it to stay in the sun.

Just a single colony left

‘We very nearly lost it in the UK because it needs short heathland and chalk grassland, with patches of bare ground. These habitats have been destroyed and fragmented over the years. It was down to a single colony at one point but now it is back up to five, and if these reintroductions are a success we can add two more and help return them to our countryside.'

The earliest studies of the field cricket were carried out by renowned 18th century naturalist and ornithologist Gilbert White, who wrote in his diary in 1761 of the insect ‘abounding most in sand banks on the side of heaths, especially in Surrey and Sussex'.

The field cricket, which is not green like most crickets but brown or black with a striking yellow wing-base, can be rather aggressive towards its own kind. There are records of violent fights between individuals.

After mating the males attempt to stop the female from wandering off to find another mate, often restraining her in the burrow for several hours, and he may get severely chewed for his efforts. Once they have mated, the female field cricket wanders around the grassland looking for areas of warm bare ground to lay her eggs.