mistressofmuses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-08-07 09:17 pm
mistressofmuses) wrote2025-08-07 09:17 pm
Katydid season!
Last night, as we were watching a really atrociously bad movie, I heard it! The first katydid of the season!
(It was very loud... while I couldn't see it, it must have been on the side of the building somewhere.)
Alex did hear one back in June while I was out of town, but neither of us heard another one since.
Jokingly I told him, as he took Bella out a couple hours later, to "let me know if you see any katydids!"
He came rushing back in about ten minutes later with something closed in his hand, saying "Come quick!"
I'm impressed that on the very first night we heard a katydid, he also found one, haha. He said he nearly stepped on the poor thing, which was sitting on the sidewalk.
So we got one of the katydid habitats set back up real quick. We even had some frozen green beans in the freezer, so heated those up and stuck those on a stick for him, ha.
Greenbean 2!
I believe this is another male, though we haven't heard him click yet. He did chow down on some green beans, though!
None of our katydid eggs from last year ever hatched. It's quite possible that they weren't fertile, as we didn't have the male and female housed together for very long (unless she'd had some relations before we caught her.) I don't know enough about their lifecycle to know if perhaps the eggs require a cold period over the winter, in which case the steady room temperature of the apartment may not have worked for them. Alas.
(It was very loud... while I couldn't see it, it must have been on the side of the building somewhere.)
Alex did hear one back in June while I was out of town, but neither of us heard another one since.
Jokingly I told him, as he took Bella out a couple hours later, to "let me know if you see any katydids!"
He came rushing back in about ten minutes later with something closed in his hand, saying "Come quick!"
I'm impressed that on the very first night we heard a katydid, he also found one, haha. He said he nearly stepped on the poor thing, which was sitting on the sidewalk.
So we got one of the katydid habitats set back up real quick. We even had some frozen green beans in the freezer, so heated those up and stuck those on a stick for him, ha.
Greenbean 2!
I believe this is another male, though we haven't heard him click yet. He did chow down on some green beans, though!
None of our katydid eggs from last year ever hatched. It's quite possible that they weren't fertile, as we didn't have the male and female housed together for very long (unless she'd had some relations before we caught her.) I don't know enough about their lifecycle to know if perhaps the eggs require a cold period over the winter, in which case the steady room temperature of the apartment may not have worked for them. Alas.
no subject
no subject
I've heard a couple more in the park down the street now, too.
no subject
I've been hearing them off and on at night for about a month/month and a half now, but it's been fairly intermittent. Same with a cicada or two on campus (closer to Clear Creek) this summer. Do they click more consistently when they're content/in captivity?
...LOL @ the mental image of a green bean kabob. XD
no subject
They are pretty big! These guys are broad-winged katydids. I'd say roughly the size of my thumb? The internet says they top out at anywhere from 2 to 2.6 inches. (I am lacking the obligatory banana for scale, but I'll try to get a green bean comparison shot, haha.)
I'm glad you've been hearing them, too! I definitely haven't heard as many this year as I feel like we did last year, though maybe it's just a little early still.
I also haven't heard many cicadas. We heard a few of the little tiny ones up in the mountains on a couple hikes, but only one or two of the big ones down in the city.
This year's katydid has been stubbornly silent inside. Last year we had two for a few months, a male and a female, and neither of them were ever quiet, haha. They had lots to say! The males make that series of click-click-clicks, and the females do just a single big click at a time. (And the series of clicks is from the wings closing together, like snapping a ziploc together! I had no idea that was how the sound happened until I watched it!)
They do love their green bean kabobs, haha.
no subject
To your point, I haven't heard nearly as much of either bug this year either unfortunately. (I'm also not entirely sure what species I am hearing for that matter as I've yet to see them.)
That is seriously cool though, I always wondered what the wave of katydid "call and response" clicking of sorts was exactly in our neighbor's ash trees! (I didn't know the females responded/clicked in turn, I always just assumed it was the bro bugs showing off. Sir David Attenborough seriously needs to narrate this exchange...) I hope yours overcomes its stage fright and clicks, unless it's terribly annoying(?)/loud(?), in which case I'm glad it's been a considerate bug haha?
And lol, I forgot to add, it sounds like it's a *gourmet* green bean kabob haha. Adjectives matter. xD
no subject
Unfortunately we do seem to be a bit light on insect song this year. I don't know if it's something to do with the heat, or the usual pressures of pesticides/habitat loss/etc.
I do enjoy the call and response nature of their clicking! Of the two that we have, the female has still been completely quiet, but the male seems to think *every* sound is another katydid, and feels he must make sure that everyone knows he's the biggest and best katydid around. So he keeps aggressively clicking at... the sound of the door, the sound of cereal being poured into a bowl, drawers or cabinets closing, the dog walking past...
Absolutely gourmet green bean kabobs! Hahaha Only the fanciest for these katydids!
no subject
LOL - I'm cracking up at the mental image of this bro bug going absolutely nuts at everything it perceives to be competition while the female just sits back and ignores him utterly, entirely unimpressed haha.
no subject
She really does seem just utterly unimpressed with his antics. He's over there absolutely losing it, and she's just ignoring him entirely, haha.
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
no subject
That's a good photo you got there!
no subject
And thank you! I love how much like a leaf they truly do look.
no subject
no subject
I do love how extremely Shaped they are! (And how impressively like a leaf they look.)