Species of the Month: Short-winged Conehead Erebia aethiops (August 2024)

The Short-winged Conehead Erebia aethiops is one of five species of native bush-cricket that have been found in SW Scotland. First recorded in SW Scotland in 2011, this species has since spread widely along the Dumfries & Galloway coast and is now the most widespread of our five local cricket species. Indeed it now occurs along a large part of the D&G coast where suitable habitat exists.

The easiest way to separate bush-crickets from their commoner grasshopper cousins is the long, thread-like antennae, often as long as or longer than the body (much shorter and less delicate in grasshoppers). Short-winged Conehead is small (11-18mm long) and green with a brown stripe along the back and brown wings which finish short of the abdomen tip. Females have a long and gently curved ovipositor which is used to deposit eggs in hollow-stemmed vegetation. As with many other orthopterans, they can also be found and identified by their high-pitched stridulations, which for many people is most clearly heard using a bat detector. Example recordings for all species can be heard on the Orthoptera Recording Scheme website. It can be easily confused with its close relative the Long-winged Conehead Conocephalus discolor which as its name suggests has longer wings, but although this species has dramatically increased in range in recent years it has yet to be recorded in our region.

A good way to search for Short-winged Coneheads in SW Scotland is to identify suitable habitat. Almost all records are from coastal sites in areas of maritime rushes and grasses at the head of saltmarsh, usually with stands of Sea Club-rush Bolboschoenus maritimus. Patient searching amongst the Sea Club-rush often yields rewards.

So far the species has only once been recorded from Ayrshire – a single moribund specimen found at Dumfries House. Nonetheless there is potential to find this species at suitable coastal sites at this time of year and it would be well worth checking areas of B. maritimus on the mainland Ayrshire coast or along parts of the Arran coast. The interactive BSBI map of B. maritimus can be found here.

Mark Pollitt

SWSEIC Manager