Katydids

=.Suborder: Ensifera=

Fig 1: A True Katydid (//Pterophylla camellifolia//)

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Orthropoda Suborder: Ensifera
 * Taxonomy**

The suborder Ensifera includes all the long-horned grasshoppers (katydids) and all of the crickets, while the short-horned grasshoppers belong to the suborder Caelifera (3). Katydids are known as the long-horned grasshoppers because they are flattened side to side like a grasshopper, but have long antennae like the crickets (3). The name (katydid) came from the song that the male True Katydid produces, "katy did, katy didn't" (3). Katydids live in forests, thickets, and fields with lots of shrubs and trees; they spend most of their time at the tops of the trees in the leaves [|(1)].

Katydids resemble a leaf and are usually green in color with some occasionally being pink (3). They are medium to large insects, they have chewing mouth parts, two pairs of wings (one leaf looking and hard and the other soft and flexible), large hind legs for jumping, long and thin antennae, and both males and females have the ability to sing using the structures on the forewings [|(2)]. Male and female long-horned Orthoptera produce their songs (chirping noise) by rubbing their front wings together, which have large veinless areas that serve as resonating membranes (3). These resonating membranes amplify the songs produced when the basal scraper on the upper surface of one front wing rubs against the file-like ridge on the lower surface of the other wing (3). The tympanum (ear) is located on the front leg at the base of the tibia and is how katydids hear the sounds of other katydids (3).
 * Description**

Female katydids have an ovipositor (a long, sharp egg laying tube) unlike their short-horned relatives, and lay eggs on stems [|(1)]. The life cycle of a katydid is Hemimetabolous (incomplete metamorphoses), in that the young look like the adult with a few differences (one usually being no wings on the young), have the same feeding habits, and the same niche. The young hatch from the egg and look like their parents; they then go through a series of molts as they grow up into an adult. Breeding season is in the summer and early fall and the eggs will last over winter and hatch in the spring time; the young take care of themselves [|(1)].
 * Life Cycle**

Fig 2: Life cycle not including egg (Grasshopper is pictured, but cycle is the same).

Katydids eat leaves on trees and shrubs; sometimes they will eat flowers, dead insects, insect eggs, and slow-moving insects [|(1)][|(2)]. Most predators of katydids are birds, bats, spiders, frogs, snakes, and other insect eaters [|(1)]. Katydids evade predators by their leaf shape camouflage and jumping/flying to escape predators [|(2)].
 * Predators and Prey**

There isn't much ecological importance besides being food for other animals and not much human impact either. Katydids rarely damage crops and have minute interactions with humans.
 * Ecological Importance and Human Impact**

Page created by Abeles, J 1. Moran, Mark. "True Katydid." //Fcps.edu//. Fairfax County Public Schools, n.d. Web 11 Nov. 2013. <[]>
 * References**

2. Hammond, George. "Katydids: Tettigoniidae." Universit of Michigan Museum of Zoology, n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <[]>

3. Marshall, Stephen A. (2006) "Insects Their Natural History and Diversity." Buffalo, NY: Firefly Books Inc. pp. 71-75.

Fig 1: A True Katydid. Retrieved 11 Nov. 2013 from: <[]>
 * Images**

Fig 2: Life cycle of grasshoppers. Retrieved 8 Nov. 2013 from: < []  >