Sierra Shieldback Katydid
We have reader Andrew Lin to thank for today’s awesome insect photo. He sent in this picture, and says it is a sierra shieldback katydid. I love the mottled camouflage on this bug. She almost looks more like a machine than an insect.
Andrew took this photo in October of 2006 along a hiking trail in Calaveras Big Tree State Park in Northern California. I don’t have a good size reference from this photo, but judging from the grain of the wood, and it probably being redwood or cedar (popular outdoor railing woods), and it being a katydid, I’d say she’s probably 2-3cm long. That’s not counting the long thin ovipositor coming out her backside–which is how you can tell gender on katydids.
Oh, this is interesting: BugGuide says that shieldbacks are “predaceous katydids”; they further say “Some species are active predators of other insects. Many also eat plant material and scavenge dead insects.” So, cool–it’s a predator!
Awesome photo, Andrew!
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
tceisele said,
December 13, 2007 @ 3:13 pm
I gather that the boundaries between herbivores and carnivores may not be as cut-and-dried as we’ve been lead to believe. Evidently a lot of katydids and grasshoppers are opportunistic carnivores, to the point that a katydid actually bit my wife once (it didn’t break the skin, but it tried!). For that matter, even cows have been known to turn carnivorous from time to time
David Brady said,
December 13, 2007 @ 9:42 pm
insert mad cow joke here….
One of the footnotes on katydids is that some species will indeed attempt to bite if handled. That’s just so crazy to me. Biting gr’oppers? Madness! MADNESS I SAY!