Large Marsh Grasshopper (Stethophyma grossum) – Ireland’s largest grasshopper species.
I struggle to tell a lot of species apart (including grasshoppers), but the large marsh grasshopper has quite distinctive colouring, and likes to hang out in bogs. The land around Lough Corrib close to Galway city has plenty of bog and reedbeds, and it was in one of them that I photographed this specimen. According to the National Biodiversity Data Centre, this is only the second specimen recorded this year. The other one was recorded on the RTE Studio campus (I’m guessing it was recorded by RTE’s wildlife supremo, Derek Mooney). That one was also the only one logged in Dublin in the last decade, which isn’t that surprising – there aren’t many bogs in Stillorgan. The large marsh grasshopper tends to be found in the west of Ireland, though there have been records logged on the bogs in the Shannon catchment. I’ve got some trips to Connemara planned next month so I’ll need to keep a lookout for more specimens.