Until the grassland species began emerging last month, I have seen only five butterflies, namely two brimstones, and three small whites.

This is disastrous and reflects the extremely sad state we have reached with the entire food chain, also affecting swifts which have declined by 98 per cent due to a lack of flying insects and sealing up of roof spaces for ventilation purposes.

The only species to remain untouched are dragonflies and damselflies which spend up to three years as larvae.

Only swallows benefit in this way because as they skim the water surface there are lots of mayflies flying above.

Being midsummer, grasshoppers have reached the peak of their activity, and can be heard singing or chirping or, to be more precise, stridulating, to attract mates in lush grassland on warm sunny days.

Male grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing a row of tiny pegs on a hind leg against stout veins on the forewings.

In our areas we have five species: namely the common green, meadow, common field, stripe-winged and mottled.

The first to appear is the common green and his song consists of a constant ticking rather like the sound of a freewheeling bicycle.

The common field grasshopper’s song is composed of six to ten

chirps in bursts of about ten seconds.

The song of the meadow grasshopper sounds like a sewing machine, in bursts of about three seconds.

This species cannot fly as its wings are insufficiently developed, so instead it leaps long distances.

The stripe-winged grasshopper’s song consists of a wheezing buzzing sound that rises in pitch, lasting for about 15 seconds, while the call of the scarce mottled grasshopper sounds like a clock being wound up.

Confusing maybe, but with a little practice the different call of each can be identified.

Although similar in appearance to grasshoppers, bush crickets possess very

long antennae and are more nocturnal than

grasshoppers.

We have five species locally including Roesels (pictured), dark bush cricket, long-

winged conehead, spotted

bush cricket and oak bush cricket.

They all stridulate but very quietly, except for the Roesels which utters a continuous high- pitched buzzing sound.

In summer in grassland, his sounds herald the approach of autumn.