hop into summer and spot a grasshopper 2026

Start with sound

Grasshoppers provide a nostalgic soundtrack to warm summer days, and a good way to begin studying this group is to listen for them during your daily lunchtime walks or in your own garden.

With a little practice, you can easily recognise the wheezing song of the stripe-winged grasshopper or the rhythmic, sewing-machine-like ticking of the common green grasshopper.

Spotting tips

When you have learnt which habitats are likely to harbour grasshoppers, they can be quite easy to find, either by listening for their song on warm, sunny days in Durham City or by carefully walking through the grassland that surrounds our City and watching for them jumping ahead of you. Some species, such as the field grasshopper, will fly short distances, revealing their bright orange-red hind wings.

Grasshoppers can be distinguished from bush-crickets by their shorter antennae, although identifying individual grasshopper species can be more challenging. One important feature in many species is the shape of the side of the pronotum (the section immediately behind the head).

However, colour can be misleading. Several grasshopper species that are typically green can occasionally occur in striking purple forms.

Did you spot a grasshopper? Log it on the My Greenspace app under ‘explore my area’ or ‘biodiversity’ to earn 500 points each and be in with a chance of winning one of four monthly vouchers.

Download the My Greenspace app here and start earning points.