Katydids look all sorts of ways. The local in the above photo is a Greater Angle-Winged Katydid and looks like an Hieronymus Bosch painting of a leaf with legs and a face. You almost expect a hat and jewelry. But it does so much look like a leaf.
According to the WWW, the Katydid family (Tettigoniidae) contains well over 6000 different species. They are structurally related to crickets and grasshoppers, all of which are of the order, Orthoptera, but Crickets and Katydids are closer alike than they are to Grasshoppers.
Most Crickets, Katydids and Grasshoppers eat the leaves of trees and bushes. Some Katydids prey on other insects, but the beloved Crickets and Katydids we find and listen to in our gardens are herbavoirs and are very beneficial to a living garden in several ways. For one thing, they are a major food source and delight for birds, including the Nevada state bird, the Mountain Bluebird. Birds, in fact, keep these secretive insects in check by eating them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you've never seen a bird dining on a Katydid, you need only imagine hungry tourists devouring crab or escargot or caviar on an asphalt roof. Toads and lizards will dine on them, too.
But Katydids and Crickets are not just for those who love to savor their delicious flesh. The benefits are aesthetic, as well. Who doesn't enjoy the songs of crickets and Katydids on a warm summer evening? In fact, along with Cicadas, Crickets and Katydids belong to a very special group called the Singing Insects of North America!
To meet a Katydid in person is to experience an amazing event, definitely on par with sighting an elusive lizard or small exquisite bird.
Certainly it's unfair to equate all 6400 different types of Katydids with the Mormon Cricket. Unfortunately, the Mormon Cricket gives real Crickets and other Katydids a bad name. Not all run in hordes. Not all wreak havoc on land and people. Not all are used by heaven's intentions to bring about the dreaded plaques to local fields and ridges. Many Katydids, in fact, are much more mellow, behaving more like normal every day crickets. So what if they eat a leaf or two, the chance to get to meet one face to face is well worth a few munched leaves.
Unless a Katydid steps out from the leaves in which it lives, it is almost invisible in the yard and garden. Not only do they look like leaves, but Katydids live about as long as a deciduous leaf lasts on a tree; a single season.
This Katydid emerged from hiding in the morning, early August, in a Concord grape vine in the old southwest section of Reno, NV. The water drops on the Katydid's body are from an oscillating sprinkler. Tomato plants live within hopping distance.
We usually don't see Crickets and Katydids because they are most active after dark. Grasshoppers are out in the daytime much more often which is why we tend to see them more. All in balance contribute to the diversity of a living garden. The one in the photos above was very docile. We wondered if it flew down from the nearby Ash tree to get a drink of water from the sprinkler. It was nonchalant and undisturbed by the photo session. We named it Wilbur. Wilbur the big green Katydid.
The fossil record for insects imitating leaves and sticks (Phasmatodea) sets the behavior at 47 million years, which reaches back to "the final days of the Dinosaurs." The Katydids we find locally are also of these "leaf insects" because they imitate leaves down to the leaf veins or leaf ribs.
They are amazing to behold. It looks as if a leaf has plucked itself from the tree, transforming itself into something kenetic and mobile.
There are major efforts to eleminate the Anabrus simplex, the so-called Morman Cricket, which is sometimes named as a type of Katydid. But Mormon Crickets are not Phasmids. Mormon Crickets are not even really crickets; they are hard shelled or "shield-backed" katydids. But there are over 6400 different versions of Katydid. Associated with the mythical west, Mormon Crickets were at some point mistaken for grasshoppers, probably because they look like drunk grasshoppers, all painted up, coming from some huge masquerade party. That's the way Mormon Crickets are. It's quite a fright to see. Hundreds of them heading west, thick enough to be forced to watch where you walk. They don't really try to get out of the way, but they try to fly, but can't; instead constantly bumping into things and people. And devouring all hors d'Oeuvres in sight. A masquerade party from hell is what it is.
According to the Wyoming Geographic Information Science Center web site:
Although the Mormon cricket has been observed to feed on more than 400 species of plants, this insect discriminates in its choice of foods, preferring certain succulent forbs. Examinations of crop contents and direct observations of feeding show that preferred forbs include milkvetches, penstemon, arrowleaf balsamroot, dandelion, and several mustards such as wild mustard, tumble mustard, and pepperweed. Among the abundant shrubs growing in its habitat, the Mormon cricket has often been observed feeding on saltbush and on species of sagebrush (big sagebrush, budsage, fringed sagebrush). At certain times of the season it may restrict its feeding to two to four staple foods available in its habitat. These may include various forbs, grasses, seeds, fungi, and arthropods. When grasses and forbs begin seed development, Mormon crickets (adult by this time) climb the plants and feed preferentially on the nutritious kernels.
Mormon crickets relish cultivated plants; they feed voraciously on wheat, barley, alfalfa, sweetclover, truck crops, and garden vegetables.
Train yourself to recognize beneficial insects. When you see them living happy and carefree in your garden, take a good look at what it is that makes the insects so happy. Then you can duplicate the conditions elsewhere in order to extend the living space of your garden.
Pollinating Insects to encourage:
Predatory insects to encourage:
Food For Birds, Lizards, Toads
Soil Producing & Enhancing Annelids
Try this book: Wildlife-Friendly Plants: Make Your Garden a Haven for Beneficial Insects, Amphibians and Birds by Rosemary Creeser and Steve Wooser (Photographer). Beneficial insects, amphibians and birds are all right here in our own backyards. Plus, the concept is interesting and holds numerous possibilities.
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It's easy to have a Praying Mantis set up residency in your backyard each summer. They generally stay in one area and are incredibly fascinating to watch. Plus they kill lots of wasps and flies.
