30 Days Wild - Day 29 - What's the difference..

... between a grasshopper and a cricket?

This was my task for today's 30 Days Wild.  We found this one at Wicken Fen the other day - in fact I very nearly stood on it! I immediately said a cricket, my husband said grasshopper.  Grasshoppers are green aren't they he said? No it's something to do with their antennae I replied. No surely it's more than that he wanted to know.



So...

according to the Amateur Entomologists' Society (AES):

"One of the commonest questions asked about grasshoppers and crickets is how to tell them apart. There are a number of ways to tell if you're looking at a grasshopper or cricket:

• The main difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae.
• Crickets stridulate ("sing") by rubbing their wings together, while grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their long hind legs against their wings.
• Grasshoppers detect sound by means of little 'ears' at the base of their abdomen; in crickets these are on the front legs. 
• Most crickets are crepuscular (which means they come out at dusk) whereas grasshoppers tend to be out and about during the day. 
• Grasshoppers mostly eat grass, but crickets are partial to animal matter aswell."

Okay well ours wasn't eating or singing and I couldn't see any ears. It was out during the day so could be a grasshopper but its antennae were definitely of the longer variety so I'm right cricket...?

Actually having researched it a bit more and compared my photo with others online I have decided it could be a Roesel's Bush-Cricket (Metrioptera roeselii) but if you think otherwise please feel free to enlighten me!