Rare eastern bush-cricket found on Pirkanmaa cottage kitchen wall

A reader photographed an eastern bush-cricket on the kitchen wall of a summer cottage in Pirkanmaa.

Tomi Kumpulainen, curator at the Tampere Natural History Museum, identified the insect from the photo as an eastern bush-cricket, a straight-winged insect rather than a dragonfly.

The woodland bush-cricket, which looks similar, is found further south and can be told apart by its longer wings that extend past the tip of the abdomen; the eastern form has shorter wings, and the female hides her egg-laying organ at the rear. Both species can reach over five centimetres in length.

The species is largely absent from western Finland except near Turku, and records from Pirkanmaa are very occasional, possibly the result of accidental human transport. They favour shrubs and treetops. Activity is highest from late summer afternoons into the night and early morning. Such sightings are rare.

The find joins other reader-submitted unusual wildlife sightings in recent weeks, including a colourful maple owlet moth caterpillar spotted in Tampere and a large earwig in Kissanmaa.

Readers who spot unusual wildlife can send photos to Aamulehti’s nature doctor column at [email protected] for identification.