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Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn
Sound - Description - Outbreaks
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(Red-form; female - note the ovipositor)
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(Nymph)
More Photos: Red form, Red form, Green form, Green Form, Outbreak
Interesting discussion of different katydid with brown/green dimorphism
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Endemic to Texas, Primary Map Source: Singing Insects of
North America
2007 outbreak reported from Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Hays, Kendall, & Medina Counties
This outbreak made news: Katydids swarm area counties - The Daily Times, Kerrville - June 26, 2007
-----> Send new county records here <------
Sound file of one individual singing - A quick raspy z-z-z-z-z-z song lasting about a third of a second, repeated at two to six second intervals.
This is dominant insect sound heard nightly across Central Texas each summer.
During population outbreaks, the songs of hundreds if not thousands of katydids overlap to produce a constant pulsating whine that goes on day and night!
(The above sound file was recorded by Lee Elliot at Government Canyon SNA, San Antonio, TX around noon (!) on June 3, 2007.)
Identification:
Length 1.3 - 1.7 inches. Forewings are broad near the tips, leaf-like and are slightly convex thus forming a cup around the abdomen..
Habitat: Oak woodlands.
Season: Adults sing primarily late May to mid-July, but can be heard until September.
Life cycle:
Like most Orthoptera, they have one generation per year and the egg is the overwintering stage.
The Central Texas Leaf-Katydid is an arboreal (tree-dwelling) species found mostly is oaks.
Description:
Family Tettigoniidae - Katydids - Long-horned Grasshoppers:
Katydids are sometimes called "longhorn grasshoppers" due to their long antennae.
Wings are almost always present. Species that produce songs do so by rubbing the forewings together.
Ovipositors are usually long and blade-like.
Katydids songs sound buzzy, raspy, or whiney and call mostly at night (however, this species sings day and night during population outbreaks.)Subfamily Pseudophyllinae - True Katydids - Leaf-Katydids:
Leaf-like wings form cups enclosing the abdomen. The cupped wings may serve to amplify their sounds. Antennae longer and stiffer than in other katydids.
Most true katydids occur mainly in mature trees on which they feed. Their songs, made mostly at night, are loud and raucous, and their numbers are often great. In many areas they are the katydids most frequently heard.
True katydids are not adapted to long range dispersal. Their only "flight" is a downward fluttering when disturbed from their perch.
Similar Species: Subfamily Pseudophyllinae - True katydids (Leaf katydids)
About 1000 species worldwide in this subfamily which is especially well represented in the New World tropics.
However, only four species occur in the United States. Although similar, they are placed in three genera.Texas Taxa: Three species (in two genera) occur in Texas
Chisos katydid - Paracyrtophyllus excelsus (Rehn and Hebard 1914) - Chisos Mountains, Big Bend NP, Texas
Truncated true katydid - Paracyrtophyllus robustus (Caudell 1906) - Central Texas (aka Central Texas Leaf-Katydid)
Common true katydid - Pterophylla camellifolia (Fabricius 1775) - East Texas, southeastern U.S.Songs of northern populations of this eastern species sound like "ka-ty-did" which is the origin of the name "Katydid".
Lee County, Texas - 2001
Portion of 1000-2000 acres of post oak trees impacted in 2001
Large number of adult katydids on post oaks in Lee County
Post oaks defoliated Lee County
Remarks of Dr. John Oswald, Texas A&M University on the 2001 outbreak in Lee CountyBexar County, Texas - 2007
On May 31, 2007 Bill Carr of the Texas Nature Conservancy reported from Government Canyon State Natural Area:
"We saw literally hundreds of the beasts, most or maybe all of them feeding on the foliage of plateau live oak (Quercus fusiformis). And we could see only the lower branches of most of those trees."
Etymology: Paracyrtophyllus robustus (Caudell 1906)
par, -a (G). Beside, beyond, near
cyrt, -o (G). Curved, convex
phyll, -o, =um (G). A leaf
rob, -or, -ust (L). Strong; an oakCentral Texas Leaf-Katydid
First used by Taber & Fleenor (2003), this name is more descriptive than Truncated True Katydid, proposed on the Singing Insects of North America website and used by Capinera et al, 2005.
CenTex Leaf-did - a nick name.
Biography: Andrew Nelson Caudell (1872-1936) - Smithsonian
Control:
Most Orthopteran control methods are written for Grasshoppers, e.g.:
Bibliography:
Borror, D.J. 1960. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. National Press Books, Palo Alto. 134 pp.
Capinera, J.L., R.D. Scott, & T.J. Walker. 2005. Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York. 280 pp.
Caudell, A.N. 1906. Class I, Hexapoda. Order XI, Orthoptera. The Cyrtophylli of the United States. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 14: 32-45.
Hebard, M. 1941. The group Pterophyllae as found in the United States (Tettigoniidae: Pseudophyllinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 67: 197-219, 2 pl.
Taber, S.W. & S.B. Fleenor. 2003. Insects of the Texas Lost Pines. Texas A&M University, College Station. 283 pp.
Whitesell, J.J. 1974. Geographic variation and dimorphisms in song, development, and color in a katydid: field and laboratory studies (Tettigoniidae, Orthoptera). PhD dissertation. University of Florida, Gainesville. 75 pp.
27 May 2008 © Mike Quinn / mike.quinn@tpwd.state.tx.us / Texas Entomology / Katydids of Texas
