Orthoptera (Grasshoppers & Crickets)
Nobody needs to look far for these fellows - where there’s grass you will find them. There is a tendency to lump all the “Grasshoppers” together but in reality we know of over twenty different species in this area and those fall into three distinct groups … Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids.
There are at least seven species of Grasshoppers of which the commonest is perhaps the Red-legged Grasshopper(Melanoplus femurrubrum). These are a considerable agricultural pest and will eat a wide variety of plants. For preference they like tall vegetation in pastures, fence rows, along irrigation ditches and roadsides, as well as in fallow agricultural fields which have become weedy. They are large insects and easy to observe. Adults normally roost at night on the tops of tall grasses and weeds and then crawl down the plant to feed when the air temperature rises.
There are five species of Crickets. Superficially they look much like Grasshoppers but they are nocturnally active and “sing” (technically stridulate) by rubbing forewings together whereas Grasshoppers do so by rubbing the hind leg against the forewing. Crickets are also predatory, omnivorous, or herbivorous while Grasshoppers are herbivorous only.
The most commonly seen Cricket here is perhaps the Pine Tree Cricket (Oecanthus pini) but also look out for the Fall Field Cricket (Gryllus pennsylvanicus) which, with climate change, is starting to be seen more frequently here at the end of summer. The pine tree cricket is usually found in the tops of pine trees making it difficult to see , especially as the brown anterior blends with the pine bundle sheaves and the green forewings with the needles - however they do come down to earth and will be found, for example, on garden decks when there are pine trees nearby.
Lastly, Katydids. Like Crickets these species, there are several and once known as Long-horned Grasshoppers, are nocturnal. In fact the long antennae are what really distinguish them from Grasshoppers. The common name katydid is derived from the loud, three-pulsed song, often rendered “ka-ty-did”, of one of the species. Usually they are to be heard at night during summer and early fall. Most of the species of this group are tropical with only a few to be found, and that not easily, this far north. The Short-winged Meadow Katydid (Conocephalus brevipennis) has been reported near the Arboretum as has the Broad-winged Bush Katydid (Scudderia pistillata). The former does look very much like a regular Grasshopper but the latter has large, bright green wings that look remarkably like leaves.
… and then there are the rest.
There are still a few small, but important, lives about that don’t fit into the broader groupings previously described. Some of these are rather small and some are under water so you will perhaps only see them if you are looking or if you turn over a stone and observe some rapid scuttling away from the light.
For example, living their lives mostly under water are two or three species of Caddisfly. One of these is the Black Dancer Caddisfly (Mystacides sepulchralis). The adult flies normally appear in low-flying mating swarms above relatively still water of which there is plenty surrounding this area.
There are some Lacewings to be seen. Adults are pale green, with long antennae and golden eyes. Wings are large and transparent, pale green in colour. Adults are active fliers, particularly during the evening and night and have a characteristic, fluttering flight. The larvae are actively predatory and excellent control agents for pests such as aphids and re spider-mite.
Then, under stones and in dark corners look for Silverfish and in the soil tiny Thrips.
As we leave our simplified look at Insects ... I think you may enjoy this article about where Shrimps fir into things. “Crustacea” you say, as did I until coming across this. Just maybe not.
Put plainly, evidence currently points towards there being no natural category of ‘shrimp’. The prawns we eat are closer taxonomically to insects than they are to the brine shrimp floating about in desert pools. And yet most people today shrink at the thought of ‘eating bugs’. Apparently ‘sea bugs’ are fair game!
Next Week …
The Insects are now completed. For the next few weeks we will start looking at the Flowering Plants … something at last for my botanist friends.
“This is a world where things move at their own pace, including a tiny lift that Fortey and I shared with a scholarly looking elderly man with whom Fortey chatted genially and familiarly as we proceeded upwards at about the rate that sediments are laid down. When the man departed, Fortey said to me: “That was a very nice chap named Norman who’s spent forty-two years studying one species of plant, St. John’s Wort. He retired in 1989, but he still comes in every week.”
”How do you spend forty-two years on one species of plant?” I asked.
It’s remarkable, isn’t it?” Fortey agreed. He thought for a moment. “He’s very thorough apparently.”
From ― Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything
Love the Bill Bryson quote.