Friday, September 2
We don’t often see Katydid’s in our woodlot, but we DO HEAR them. They get so loud at night that it becomes difficult to talk when we have a picnic. 🙂
The cicada (locust) sing during the day, then about dusk the katydids join them with a deeper song. By dark the cicadas are quiet and the katydids continue their chorus. If you take time to listen at dusk, you can hear the difference.
When doing research on this one, I discovered it is a male Common True Katydid. The male has a brown area on its back like the one above.
It was on our garage door for several hours.
From the Internet: The Common True Katydid is incapable of flight. The males have a dark brown stridulatory field. It is extremely difficult to capture these katydids because they are usually high up in trees, especially oaks, and they blend well with their surroundings. However, during the breeding season they may sometimes be found walking across roads, moving in the direction of dense choruses.
Songs are given from dusk into the night, with males singing from perches high in deciduous or coniferous trees. They often form huge choruses, their combined songs drowning out nearly all other sounds. [I can affirm that!]
What an interesting pair of bugs — the locust and the katydid that trade songs at dusk!
I always thought it was the locust singing – day and night – then someone who was at a picnic a few years ago told me the difference. Now I can hear it.
We had one hanging on the screen of the porch for about a day. Had to look it up to see what it was. Interesting info on them…..always thought it was only cicadas I was hearing in our woods!
I learned the difference a few years ago from a friend who was at one of our picnics.