This rare and beautiful insect disappeared from East Anglia decades ago, but thanks to our continued partnership and the dedication of volunteers, its story is changing.
The large marsh grasshopper is not only the UK’s largest grasshopper, but one of its rarest. The adults are a vibrant mix of green and yellow with red legs, making it, arguably, our most attractive grasshopper too.
Despite its size, it is often heard before it is seen. Most grasshoppers stridulate, by rubbing a row of pegs on their hind legs against their wings, this creates their familiar vibrating ‘song’. However, the male large marsh grasshoppers call by flicking their back leg off the edge of their wing, which produces a distinctive loud click.
Formerly found across southern and eastern England, habitat loss restricted the species to a few areas of the New Forest, Somerset and Dorset. It is dependent upon healthy functioning peatlands and is mostly restricted to valley mires (lowland peatbogs) now in England, although it was formerly found in a wider range of habitats.
The large marsh grasshopper was last seen in East Anglia in 1968, but since 2018, a partnership project led by Citizen Zoo has helped us release more than 8,000 of these rare grasshoppers across suitable sites in Norfolk which have now formed a self-sustaining population!
The partnership called ‘Hop of Hope’ saw Citizen Zoo volunteers, known as ‘Citizen Keepers’ rearing grasshopper nymphs at home from the eggs of a small number of captive adults.
Over the coming years the partnership intends to replicate the project’s initial success by carrying out more introductions at suitable wetland sites across the county, having had their first release in Cambridgeshire last year, too!
Could you be a hopper helper?
The eggs have incubated over winter, and will soon be ready to hatch. Once this happens, hundreds of baby hoppers will be born. We’re calling out for budding conservationists, who have the time and space in their lives and homes to carefully rear a band of baby hoppers to adulthood, ready to be released into the wild later this summer!
The key dates keepers would need to be available for are:
Training Day and Equipment Pickup
Saturday 6th June, Cambourne, Cambridge
1st Release Day
Sunday 12th July, Norfolk and potentially Cambridge sites
2nd Release Day
Sunday 16th August, Norfolk and potentially Cambridge sites