Myrmeleotettix maculatus (Thunberg 1815)

The mottled grasshopper is an elegant, small grasshopper found in low and open vegetation. It is spotted brown, green or black, giving it a mottled look. There are visible knobs at the ends of the antennae, explaining its Dutch name 'knob sprit'. In the dunes, mottled grasshoppers are the most common species found. However, on the island Terschelling, it lives more often in open heath fields. The species is found early in the summer. It is even found on the uninhabited island Griend. The song of the mottled grasshopper sounds like a clock being wound.

Myrmeleotettix maculatus is a species belonging to the subfamily Gomphocerinae and may be called the mottled grasshopper. It is found across the Palearctic east to Siberia. In the north, it is spread from the British Isles to Scandinavia and Russia, north to about the Arctic Circle, in the south to Morocco, over the south of Spain, Calabria and Greece to Turkey . They are found from sea level to about 2,500 meters above sea level, for example in the French Alps and the Balkans.