Green terror: the Predatory Bush Cricket Saga pedo

by Emanuele Biggi & Fabio Pupin

It’s summertime in Europe, fields are exploding their best color ever and insects are at their greatest number. Everywhere crickets and grasshoppers defend their territories and eat tons of leaves… except one. Camouflaged among the long-leaved herbs, there’s a creature very similar to a grasshopper, but much more lethal: the Predatory Bush Cricket (Saga pedo). Equipped with strong mandibles and sharp spikes all along its legs, Saga pedo is a real danger for any grasshopper passing by. She’s waiting, she desn’t move and keeps her front legs wide open like in a false friendly embrace. It will not pass so much time before a grasshopper like a Dociostaurus maroccanus will pass near, unaware of that odd spiny herb perching over. The hunt is short, the spiny legs set off and soon the grasshopper is embraced by death. Saga pedo then begins to eat the prey using its strong razor like mandibles. The peculiarity of Saga pedo doesn’t end with her carnivorous diet. Even the breeding physiology of this species is unique: males are barely “known to exist” by scientist (a single specimen have been found in Switzerland in 2008) and the populations are usually composed by females that breed by parthenogenesis. Basically, they produce eggs that will give birth to clones of the mothers. But that’s not all! Since this species is strongly related to grasshopper abundance and humidity, the eggs cannot hatch every year. They have to wait for the best times, a year with a particular explosion of grasshoppers for example. The female then deposit her eggs deep underground, using her sword-like ovipositor like a probe. In this way the eggs will resist to cold-weather and dryness, until a particularly rainy spring. The eggs can resist up to four years underground before hatching in small replicas of the adult. But the life of this Arthropod remains seasonal, and the adult females will die soon after depositing a few dozen of eggs. Once again the nature, even our “neighbouring” nature, can be addictive and unique. The photos of this article, for example, has been taken in a small field just over the last buildings of a big city, very close to human settlements.