The relationship between species-richness of Orthoptera and remotely sensed land cover was investigated at a grain size of 100 km² within an area of 9,900 km² in central southern England, using species data extracted from county and national atlases. Gradients in landscape composition, identified using multivariate ordination, reflected agricultural intensification (associated with increasing acreage of arable crops) and urbanisation. The number of species declined as the area under arable crops increased, yet even in the most agriculturally intensive grid-squares there appeared to be sufficient nonarable land to support all species. A range of factors such as fragmentation and degradation of nonarable habitats may become more important as the area of cropped land increases. Investigation at greater spatial resolution is needed to confirm this hypothesis. No relationship was found between species richness and urbanisation, but it was concluded that the extent of urban development was too limited to enable detailed investigation of this phenomena. The study demonstrates that coarse-grained species data within county and national atlases, combined with remotely-sensed land cover data, can be useful in detecting and interpreting spatial variation in orthopteran species diversity at the regional scale. The relationship between species richness and land cover quantifies past human impacts and suggests the approach may be useful for monitoring and interpreting future changes.