I got some good pictures a few days ago of what I thought was a green and brown grasshopper. However, when I started doing research to determine the scientific name, I couldn't find a match. Then I stumbled upon another taxon entirely: katydids! You see, grasshoppers and katydids are both members of the order
Orthoptera, but then it narrows down to the infraorder
Tettigoniidea, containing katydids, camel crickets, and their relatives, and then to the family
Tettigoniidae (katydids). Many katydids look a lot like grasshoppers, and in some ways they're like a cross between a grasshopper and a cricket. In fact, the Brits call them "bush crickets" and others call them "long-horned grasshoppers." But they're really neither a cricket nor a grasshopper. They can be distinguished from grasshoppers (and this should've alerted me) by the enormous length of their antennae: the antennae are much longer than their bodies, a lot like crickets. See my post on
camel crickets.
So, having established that my specimen was a katydid and not a grasshopper, I just had to figure out what species it was. After further research, I narrowed it down to a member of the subfamily
Conocephalinae, which, as the name implies, includes katydids with heads that taper into a cone. Then, judging by appearance, as there are different types of "cone-heads," I settled on the tribe
Conocephalini: meadow katydids. I believe the genus is
Conocephalus: lesser meadow katydids. And the species? Probably
fasciatus, though I'm not certain. There are also two subspecies, but I don't know how to determine if it's one of those.
Therefore I believe my specimen is of the species
Conocephalus fasciatus, or Slender Meadow Katydids. If I've identified it incorrectly, please let me know. Below are the photos of at least one specimen, though there could very well be three in all.
A katydid on a
Phlox plant:
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| See how long those antennae are? |
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| From this angle you can see the rounded top of the katydid's head: the "cone." |
A katydid on the glass of our storm door:
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| One of its antennae has been shortened. |
Before looking at the last specimen, it might be helpful to review some anatomy:
Check out Thysse's site for more info:
http://bugs.adrianthysse.com/2011/01/ento-101-external-structure-i-intro-and-integument/.
A dead katydid, with little of its body left uneaten:
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| Its entire abdomen is gone, plus most of the thorax, for those areas, containing vital organs and tissues, have the most value for a predator. |
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| The dark stripe characteristic of the living specimens I showed above is visible on this one's head. Its antennae have been significantly shortened. |
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| A frontal view. |
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| The thorax has been hollowed out, but its protective covering, the pronotum, remains. |
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| A hind leg. |
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| I took this photo after I moved its leg a bit; the joint still worked! Unfortunately it didn't work for long, and the leg broke. |
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