AuthorRagge, D.R.
Year1965
TitleGrasshoppers, Crickets & Cockroaches of the British Isles
SeriesWayside and Woodland Series
TypeBook/Report
How CompleteAll the British species and frequently recorded aliens
SourceWayside and Woodland Series, 299pp, Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd.
IllustrationsLine drawings, vice-county maps and 22 colour plates of paintings
Review (by Malcolm Storey)

The standard dichotomous keys to families, genera, species are followed by detailed species accounts, often with named colour forms. All the native species are illustrated, often with several colour forms.

Song diagrams representing the beats, their relative loudness and timing provide an alternative method of identification in the field.

The book also gives a handy overview of the Watsonian vice-county system, including an appendix which lists the dividing lines of the county subdivisions.

For many years the standard guide to our Orthoptera, and still useful, although the distribution maps are now very out of date following the phenomenal range expansions of many of our rarer coastal species during the last few decades.

An update was published in 1973 in Ent Gazette.

Examine with x8 or x10 hand lens ( Stereo Microscope is also useful)
Specimen PreparationFresh pinned specimens
Identification difficultyGenerally straightforward, but they fade rapidly after death.

Notes & PurposeStatusTaxonEnglishClassification
For identification, contains Checklist, Distribution mapSupersededDICTYOPTERAcockroachesAnimalia
For identification, contains Checklist, Distribution mapSupersededORTHOPTERAgrasshoppers and cricketsAnimalia
For identification, Song diagramsSupersededORTHOPTERAgrasshoppers and cricketsAnimalia
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