North Yorkshire hosts rare cricket

It was an eagle-eyed tourist who spotted the rare cricket in Dalby Forest

Forest chiefs are waiting with bated breath for the start of the cricket season to confirm another remarkable animal first in Yorkshire.

The Forestry Commission has confirmed that a picture taken of a mystery insect outside Dalby Forest Visitor centre, near Pickering, in September was of a great green bush cricket.

The cricket is England's biggest insect and this is the first recorded sighting of the creature in the county for at least 70 years.

The 4.5 centimetre long critter was flying across the forest drive when it caught the eagle-eye of nature lover Tina Randall and her party, from Peterborough, who initially thought it was a locust.

We will be pinning back our ears from July onwards and doing twilight surveys to try and hear its distinctive call. Brian Walker, Forestry Commission Wildlife Officer

When it landed on a shrub she snapped a picture and later compared the image with others on the internet, leading her to correctly guess its identity and tip-off the Forestry Commission.

Crickets are very rare in the north, preferring the warmer climate of southern England. But the warming trend linked to climate change could mean they are spreading their wings and could be soon making themselves heard in the region in the dead of night.

Bush crickets are strong flyers so if climatic and habitat conditions are favourable there is little to stop the creature colonising new areas. Experts at York University who confirmed the species' identity were said to be amazed at the discovery.

The colour of the great green bush cricket makes it extremely difficult to locate, even when aided by its distinctive song.

Brian Walker, Forestry Commission Wildlife Officer, said:

"We need to find out whether this is an isolated insect that's way off course, a so-called vagrant, or whether it's putting down roots. We know that the picture is of a female, so that opens up some interesting possibilities of little crickets hopping around.

"We will be pinning back our ears from July onwards and doing twilight surveys to try and hear its distinctive call. It's early days but we could be about to write another chapter in the natural history of North Yorkshire's forests."

Many other creatures have emerged in Dalby Forest in recent years, including the speckled wood butterfly, which is now fairly widespread in the 3,440 hectare (8,600 acre) beauty spot. Wood lark have also moved into Forestry Commission woods in the Vale of York.