The Next Wave

The katydids seem to be dying out now. Don't get me wrong, they're still around - their calls fill the day and night, but they are definitely reduced in numbers.

No problem - Mother Nature sends the next wave of insect invaders: grasshoppers!

It's almost biblical, one pestilence followed by another, but I don't think there is anything supernatural at play here. On the contrary, what's happening is completely natural and part of a large pattern.

Earlier in the year, we had very timely rain fall. This led to a great wildflower spring and all the plants benefited and thrived. With such a great amount of food available, the insect populations soared. Most noticeable were the katydids, the walking sticks, and now the grasshoppers.

This photo, shows a female standing on our house's exterior rock wall. You can see the ovipositor, or egg-laying organ, sticking out the back. She has tiny wings on top and of course the giant rear legs for leaping. The legs have tiny spikes on them and her body is quite colorful - green, yellow, white, brown, and red.

This one is unique in appearance, which is why I took its photo. There are many out there.

I wonder what the next wave of invaders will be?

The Bug Lady

Not a ladybug, but the Bug Lady. I got to meet her.

The speaker at last month's Hays County Master Naturalist chapter meeting was Valerie Bugh. She is a local naturalist, specializing in the arthropods of the Austin area, with interests in taxonomy and photography. She runs the Fauna Project at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, leads insect discovery walks, and provides insect and spider identifications. She also gives talks to local organizations and has published a pocket guide to "The Butterflies of Central Texas". Visit her web site for more information.

The motto for her talk was "Give me your bugs, your flies, your mystery critters yearning for IDs ..."

She started with an overview of several insect relatives, such as centipedes, millipedes, scorpions, and spiders. These are arthropods, but not insects. All insects are arthropods, but not all arthropods are insects. Pretty straightforward, right?

The main part of her presentation was on the large number of insects. She concentrated on local species and had many photographs. She discussed their life cycles, including incomplete and complete metamorphosis, mating, egg laying, and diet.

Valerie offered to identify any mystery insects for us. Email your photos to her, larvalbug@att.net and she'll try to identify it for you.

Here are some photos of insects I've taken at our house. First is a katydid (family Tettigoniidae), about an inch long. I took the photo while it was sitting on the wall of our screened porch. During the summer we are completely overrun with them - the trees are full of them. They make loud chirping sounds, somewhat in unison, long into the night.

Next is a grasshopper (order Orthoptera) sitting on our lawnmower handle. We find these mainly in the grass and our chickens love them. This one's about 2 inches long and must be hiding out from the chickens.

Finally, a beetle (order Coleoptera) on our house's exterior rock wall. This one caught my eye because of it's beautiful black and white pattern. Many beetles are of a single color and usually iridescent. This was small, about 1 inch.

Insects are fascinating, extremely varied, with many lifestyles and abilities. Their numbers are daunting, especially if you're interested in identifying them. They fill many ecological niches and provide many benefits, as well as harm, to us. They are worth studying and appreciating.