Critter id Please!

[princess peach]

My son and i found this yesterday sprawled out on a leaf of an oleander bush.
Its got be to be of the cricket/grasshopper family.Its very armoured..and not sure if that spear on its back end is dangerous or just showing its a male of that species.
Wildside can you help with a name and info please.

[wildside]

Hi Princess Peach,

This is a bush cricket and completely harmless to people... The blade like thing on the back end is called an ovipositor which makes this a female... (males don't have that bit as they don't lay eggs)... The ovipositor is curved upwards so that she can lay her eggs up inside the stems of small grasses and plants... Some bush crickets have ovipositors that point downwards and they push their eggs into the soil...

This one may be of the species [i]Ephippiger[/i] but I am not sure...(do a google image search for that name)... There are quite a few species here in Spain.. Some of them are meat eaters hunting down other insects whilst others are herbivores that nibble away at leaves etc... They are rarely in numbers that damage crops of ornamental plants so no need to get the insecticides out when you find these beautiful creatures...

They are almost always nocturnal and some of them along with other types of crickets are the ones doing the chirping/singing on hot summer nights

Hope that helps

[princess peach]

Thankyou again Wildside.We have all found your info really interesting,He was a beautiful creature, i had to catch him and take a pic so you could tell me what he was as i havent seen one like that before..
Are there quite a few varieties of crickets and locusts in spain ?