Katy Lied

The katydids (Tettigonidae) are out right now although not nearly in the numbers of recent years. They start calling in the evening and will go all night. Their calls are a chirping sound, similar to crickets. They seem to go in waves as if a group is calling in one tree and then being answered from a different tree. To me, nothing says summers in central Texas like the katydids droning into the night. Along with the high temperatures, of course!

There are more than 6400 species in the Tettigonidae family. They look similar to grasshoppers but are more closely related to crickets. They closely resemble leaves.

The central Texas Leaf Katydid (Paracyrtophyllus robustus) has two forms, a green and a red, shown below.

There was an outbreak in central Texas in 2007, and I took these photos in June of that year. The katydids live in the oak trees and during an outbreak can defoliate major areas. We didn't see that happen around our house. The red form seems to predominate during outbreaks and I haven't seen a red one since then.