Thursday, November 3, 2011

OK…..what is it?

It was sitting on one of the white plastic chairs on my back deck by the stack of firewood.

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Very unique looking.

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I checked all the grasshoppers and kin on the bug guide. I can’t find anything with that pointed face.

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And the other end is different too..

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If you know what it is…please let me know.

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7 comments:

  1. Wow! Cool animal. I did some sleuthing online and I believe what you have is a coneheaded katydid: http://bugguide.net/node/view/460780

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  2. No idea Carol; but certainly a strange looking creature.
    I hope someone can come up with an ID for you.

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  3. David....your sleuthing is much better than mine. I didn't see that one. Thanks so much for the link to it.

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  4. My first guess would've been katydid, but I see someone else figured it out for you first. Neat critter!

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  5. David Steen...I did notice that all of the Katydids have large wings. The one in the photos above doesn't have any wings that I can see. I also spotted another one today..no wings. I wonder if they shed them?

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  6. It does actually have them, but they're relatively small. If you check out the 'extreme close-up' picture you can make out the translucent wings. From what I could find online, length of wings allows one to differentiate between different kinds of katydid...Although it has wings, I suspect they are vestigial and do not allow this creature to fly.

    Dave

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  7. A little more ID speculation which may or may not be correct: It's a Hook-faced Conehead ("cone has prominent gap separating cone from face"). Wings are not fully developed because it is a nymph stage. It's a boy. Posterior developing sexual organs don't include an ovipositor. Also, males are always brown. Females can be either green or brown. See what you think at BugGuide.

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