Grasshoppers of Europe

The iRecord Grasshoppers app for iOS and Android has recently been updated. Not only is it possible to search for information and pictures of all Orthoptera of Britain and Ireland and to collect your grasshopper observations in the field. A new feature is to record songs of grasshoppers, to view a sonogram of those in real-time and to add sound recordings to a sighting.
In the most recent update. it is even possible to use the app as a heterodyne "bat detector". You need to connect a headphone and all high-pitched sounds will be more easily heard. Sound recording and bat detector work better with a good external microphone. Please note that only frequencies up to 20kHz will be made audible. This helps to hear grasshoppers and most bush-crickets, but is not useful for listening to bats. The feature is very helpful for people with elderly ears, that miss out the high-pitched frequencies of grasshoppers and bush-crickets. For full functionality it is needed to register with iRecord. Sightings may then be submitted to the Biological Records Centre, which is especially useful for sightings in Britain and Ireland.