Country diary:

Langstone, Hampshire There’s no mistaking its sewing-machine stridulation, but the great green bush-cricket is fiendishly difficult to locateSpeckled bush-crickets (Leptophyes punctatissima) are prolific in my garden. The nymphs hatch in May and I often spot them sunning themselves on bramble or nettle leaves. During the summer they become rather elusive, moving deeper and higher into the vegetation. But come autumn the humpbacked, spindly-legged, adults reappear.Attracted to light they of