Opera Singers In The Trees: Katydids

Amongst the beauty of ever glistening nature, there resides such beauty within crevices. Municipal colonies of ants march past olive colored grass, while up above, hives of buzzes collect peaceful pollen. Wonderful and honestly majestic orbweavers spin beauty from silk, while beetles scurry with their Vegas-destined markings. Squirrels and their fluffy affiliates top-secretly hide in trees, snails glide across leaves like a plate of green dinner, and jumping green bugs emit high-frequency noises. Those curious jumping green bugs shall possibly implode the mind of thou, as they're actually… katydids! These cute jumping insects are absolutely amazing, and I'll prove that in 594 words.

First of all, what are katydids? Katydids, also nicknamed bush crickets, are large green orthopteras (the order that also contains grasshoppers and crickets) with a long ovipositor. Katydids actually camouflage as leaves (with exceptions)! They are very similar to their jumping cousins, albeit with a few differences. While crickets and grasshoppers are wide and cylindrical, katydids are actually thin and much taller, like a leaf!

Katydids are smooth, green, and look like a leaf… right? Wrong! There is a type of katydid called the Spiny Devil Katydid that is covered in sharp spikes and a horn! These 4-inch long nocturnal cuties are able to deliver a painful bite. Unlike most katydids, who are happy nibbling on leaves, this type of katydid is actually carnivorous. Sadly, however, you can only find these spiky insects in the Amazon Rainforest.

Finally, we have some rules that all katydids follow. Katydids are green, large, and camouflage as a leaf… right? Wrong! Around one in five hundred katydids are actually born with erythrism, a rare condition where an animal's cells produce the wrong pigment and they are born a different color than usual! This is the reason that some katydids you find may be pink, red, orange, and yellow. Finding one of these uniquely colored katydids is associated with good luck. Sadly, these types of katydids are easy for predators to spot, but they do still have many defenses to protect themselves.

So, we finally have a full set of rules for katydids. They're tall, thin, and opaque orthoptera who can come in many colors… right? Wrong! There is a type of katydid whose nymphs are transparent. You can literally see right through them. As they mature, they become opaque, but they're still pale. These carnivorously cool katydids live in Latin America. Also present in Latin America, the nymphs of the Vestria Katydid pretend to be huntsman spiders. They hide on leaves just like huntsman spiders, they have extremely similar markings to huntsman spiders, and they're actually omnivores who prey on spiders! When they become adults, they don't look like huntsman spiders anymore, yet they become rainbow colored when they mature to display to predators that they're poisonous and should not be eaten.

Another wonderful thing about katydids, they're actually amazing singers. They are able to rub their wings together, which produces beautiful music, even though sometimes their tunes are too high pitched for humans to hear. You can find them alongside crickets, grasshoppers, and cicadas in the outdoor evening bug orchestra. Many examples of old proverbs actually state that the first frost of fall will arrive six weeks after you hear them singing for the first time.

"None of the other girls liked my insect puns. But Katydid. " — Eddie Deezen

So, we officially know exactly what katydids are. Katydids are tall, thin, magical, and wondrous six-legged cousins of Mariah Carey. Thank you very much for reading this article!

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